Systems and methods to identify merchants

ABSTRACT

A system and method including a mobile application installed on a mobile device and configured to authenticate a merchant represented by a unique identifier, determine a position of the mobile device while the mobile device is co-located with a transaction terminal of the merchant, communicate the position to a portal to associate the position with the unique identifier and to receive an account number, and provide the account number to generate an authorization request on the transaction terminal. The authorization request includes a terminal identifier of the transaction terminal. When the authorization request generated using the account number is detected, the association between the account number provided to the mobile application and the location received from the mobile application is replaced with the association between the terminal identifier extracted from the authorization request and the location. Thus, subsequent authorization requests generated by the transaction terminal can be determined to contain the terminal identifier and identified to be associated with the location and the merchant identifier.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/191,156, filed Feb. 26, 2014, which is acontinuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/889,970,filed May 8, 2013 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,706,557 on Apr. 22,2014, the entire disclosures of which applications are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

The present application relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/624,778, filed Sep. 21, 2012, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,159,084 onOct. 13, 2015, and entitled “Systems and Methods to Communicate via aMerchant Aggregator”, the entire disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

At least some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to useridentification, the processing of transaction data, such as records ofpayments made via credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, etc., and/orproviding information based on the processing of the transaction data.

BACKGROUND

Millions of transactions occur daily through the use of payment cards,such as credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, etc. Correspondingrecords of the transactions are recorded in databases for settlement andfinancial recordkeeping (e.g., to meet the requirements of governmentregulations). Such data can be mined and analyzed for trends,statistics, and other analyses. Sometimes such data are mined forspecific advertising goals, such as to provide targeted offers toaccount holders, as described in PCT Pub. No. WO 2008/067543 A2,published on Jun. 5, 2008 and entitled “Techniques for Targeted Offers.”

U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0216579, published on Aug. 27, 2009 andentitled “Tracking Online Advertising using Payment Services,” disclosesa system in which a payment service identifies the activity of a userusing a payment card as corresponding with an offer associated with anonline advertisement presented to the user.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,330, issued on Oct. 2, 2001 and entitled“Communicating with a Computer Based on the Offline Purchase History ofa Particular Consumer,” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,573, issued Apr. 25,2000 and entitled “Communicating with a Computer based on an UpdatedPurchase Behavior Classification of a Particular Consumer”, disclosessystems in which a targeted advertisement is delivered to a computer inresponse to receiving an identifier, such as cookie, corresponding tothe computer.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,855, issued on Apr. 25, 2006 and entitled “Processand System for Integrating Information from Disparate Databases forPurposes of Predicting Consumer Behavior,” discloses a system in whichconsumer transactional information is used for predicting consumerbehavior.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,168, issued on Jan. 7, 2003 and entitled “System andMethod for Gathering and Standardizing Customer Purchase Information forTarget Marketing,” discloses a system in which categories andsub-categories are used to organize purchasing information by creditcards, debit cards, checks and the like. The customer purchaseinformation is used to generate customer preference information formaking targeted offers.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,444,658, issued on Oct. 28, 2008 and entitled “Methodand System to Perform Content Targeting,” discloses a system in whichadvertisements are selected to be sent to users based on a userclassification performed using credit card purchasing data.

U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2005/0055275, published on Mar. 10, 2005 andentitled “System and Method for Analyzing Marketing Efforts,” disclosesa system that evaluates the cause and effect of advertising andmarketing programs using card transaction data.

U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0217397, published on Sep. 11, 2008 andentitled “Real-Time Awards Determinations,” discloses a system forfacilitating transactions with real-time awards determinations for acardholder, in which the award may be provided to the cardholder as acredit on the cardholder's statement.

The disclosures of the above discussed patent documents are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings in which like referencesindicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system to provide services based on transactiondata according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates the generation of an aggregated spending profileaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a method to generate an aggregated spending profileaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows a system to provide information based on transaction dataaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a transaction terminal according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an account identifying device according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data processing system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows the structure of account data for providing loyaltyprograms according to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a system to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 10 shows a method to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 11 shows a system configured to communicate via a merchantaggregator according to one embodiment.

FIG. 12 shows a system to enroll a merchant according to one embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows a method to provide real-time notifications oftransactions according to one embodiment.

FIG. 14 shows a system to identify a merchant according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 15 shows a method to identify a merchant according to oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Introduction

A mobile application running on a mobile device can be used to establishthe connection between a terminal identifier of a transaction terminalused in processing payment transactions of a merchant, the location ofthe transaction terminal configured in a payment processing network, andan identity of the merchant used outside the payment processing network.For example, the mobile application can be configured to authenticatethe merchant represented by a unique identifier outside the paymentprocessing network. After the merchant is authenticated and while themobile device is co-located with the transaction terminal, the mobileapplication determines a position of the mobile device. Thus, theposition determined by the mobile application represents a location ofthe transaction terminal. The mobile application provides the locationto a portal for association with the unique identifier of the merchant,and receives an account number from the portal to allow the portal totemporarily establish the association between the account numberreceived in the mobile application and the location of transactionterminal determined by the mobile application. After the account numberis used on the transaction terminal to initiate an authorization requestfor a transaction, the authorization request made using the accountnumber is identified to extract the terminal identifier transmitted inthe authorization request. The association between the account numberand the location of the transaction terminal is then replaced with theassociation between the terminal identifier and the location. Thus,subsequent authorization requests containing the terminal identifier canbe identified as being submitted for transactions at the location withthe merchant represented by the unique identifier. Some details andexamples are provided in the section entitled “MERCHANT IDENTIFICATION.”

For example, transaction data, such as records of transactions made viacredit accounts, debit accounts, prepaid accounts, bank accounts, storedvalue accounts and the like, can be processed to optionally provideinformation for various services, such as reporting, benchmarking,advertising, content or offer selection, customization, personalization,prioritization, etc. In one embodiment of improving privacy protections,users are required to enroll in a service program and provide consent toallow the system to use related transaction data and/or other data forthe related services, and the system is configured to provide theservices while protecting the privacy of the users in accordance withthe enrollment agreement and user consent.

For example, based on the transaction data and/or the user data linkedvia the transaction data, an advertising network can presentpersonalized or targeted advertisements/offers on behalf of advertisers.A computing apparatus of, or associated with, the transaction handleruses the transaction data and/or other data, such as account data,merchant data, search data, social networking data, web data, etc., todevelop intelligence information about individual customers, or certaintypes or groups of customers. The intelligence information can be usedto select, identify, generate, adjust, prioritize, and/or personalizeadvertisements/offers to the customers. The transaction handler may befurther automated to process the advertisement fees charged to theadvertisers, using the accounts of the advertisers, in response to theadvertising activities. Some of the services are discussed in thesection entitled “TRANSACTION DATA BASED SERVICES.”

For example, the computing apparatus can be configured to generatetrigger records for a transaction handler to identify authorizationrequests that satisfy the conditions specified in the trigger records,identify communication references of the users associated with theidentified authorization requests, and use the communication referencesto target real-time messages at the users in parallel with thetransaction handler providing responses to the respective authorizationrequests. Details in one embodiment regarding the generation anddelivery of messages in real-time with the processing of transactionsare provided in the section entitled “REAL-TIME MESSAGES.”

For example, the computing apparatus can be configured to providetransaction information about transactions between enrolled merchantsand enrolled account holders to a merchant aggregator, which enrolls themerchants and account holders for enhanced communications with merchantsand account holders. The transaction information is provided in realtime or concurrently with the processing of the respective transactionrequests at the transaction handler. Details and examples in oneembodiment regarding the communication via the merchant aggregator areprovided in the section entitled “MERCHANT AGGREGATOR.”

The computing apparatus may correlate transactions with activities thatoccurred outside the context of the transaction, such as onlineadvertisements presented to the customers that at least in part causeoffline transactions. The correlation data can be used to demonstratethe success of the advertisements, and/or to improve intelligenceinformation about how individual customers and/or various types orgroups of customers respond to the advertisements.

For example, the computing apparatus correlates, or provides informationto facilitate the correlation of, transactions with online activities ofthe customers, such as searching, web browsing, social networking andconsuming advertisements, with other activities, such as watchingtelevision programs, and/or with events, such as meetings,announcements, natural disasters, accidents, news announcements, etc.The correlation results are used in predictive models to predicttransactions and/or spending patterns based on activities or events, topredict activities or events based on transactions or spending patterns,to provide alerts or reports, etc.

In one embodiment, a single entity operating the transaction handlerperforms various operations in the services provided based on thetransaction data. For example, in the presentation of the personalizedor targeted advertisements, the single entity may perform the operationssuch as generating the intelligence information, selecting relevantintelligence information for a given audience, selecting, identifying,adjusting, prioritizing, personalizing and/or generating advertisementsbased on selected relevant intelligence information, and facilitatingthe delivery of personalized or targeted advertisements, etc.Alternatively, the entity operating the transaction handler cooperateswith one or more other entities by providing information to theseentities to allow these entities to perform at least some of theoperations for presentation of the personalized or targetedadvertisements.

Merchant Identification

In a payment transaction processing network, such as a system partiallyillustrated in FIG. 4 and further discussed in the section entitled“TRANSACTION PROCESSING AND DATA,” a merchant may be represented by amerchant account (148). A transaction terminal (105) of the merchant hasa terminal identifier that identifies the merchant account (148) in thepayment transaction processing network. The system may store merchantinformation in association with the merchant account, such as a businessname of the merchant, a business address of the merchant, etc.

However, in a large payment transaction processing network, it can be achallenging task to efficiently and accurately identify a particularmerchant based on merchant information such as business name and/orbusiness address, when the merchant information is submitted by a humanuser.

For example, a merchant may have a plurality of different businessnames. A business name associated with a merchant account (148) in thepayment transaction processing system may be different from a businessname typically used by the merchant in doing business outside thepayment transaction processing system. For example, a merchant may usebusiness names with slightly different spelling or wording in differentbusiness situations. For example, the business name of a merchant may bechanged but not updated promptly in a data warehouse (149) that storesthe merchant information for the merchant account (148). Some merchantshave similar or same business names.

Further, it is desirable to have accurate location information of thetransaction terminals (e.g., 105) of the merchants to provide locationrelated services in connection with payment transaction processing.

FIG. 14 shows a system to identify a merchant according to oneembodiment.

In FIG. 14, a mobile device (409) is configured with a mobileapplication (407) to facilitate the identification of the merchant. Themobile application (407) can be provided via, for example, downloadingit from a portal (143) or an application store configured to delivermobile applications to certain mobile devices (409).

In FIG. 14, the mobile device (409) includes a global positioning system(GPS) receiver (403) to determine the current position of the mobiledevice (409). When the mobile device (409) is positioned near thetransaction terminal (105) of the merchant, or co-located with thetransaction terminal (105), the position determined by the GPS receiver(403) can be used as the position of the transaction terminal (105).

Alternatively or in combination, the mobile device (409) may determinethe current position of the mobile device (409) cellular communicationssignals, wireless local area communications signals, and/or aninteractive map.

In FIG. 14, the mobile device (409) includes a communication device(405) configured to communicate with the portal (143) via a wiredcommunication connection and/or a wireless communication connection. Forexample, the communication device (405) may include a wireless localarea network transceiver configured to use a wireless local area networkconnection to connect to the Internet for communication with the portal(143). For example, the communication device (405) may include acellular communications transceiver configured to use a cellulartelecommunications connection to connect to the Internet forcommunication with the portal (143).

In FIG. 14, the mobile device (409) is configured to communicate withthe portal (143) to authenticate the merchant using the mobileapplication (407) running in the mobile device (409).

For example, when the merchant participates in an offer program (e.g.,by providing an offer (186) illustrated in FIG. 9 or FIG. 11), a uniquemerchant identifier (411) can be assigned to represent the merchant. Themerchant identifier (411) is configured to uniquely identify themerchant among a plurality of merchants in the system, such as merchantsidentified in the data warehouse (149).

Access to merchant information (225) and/or services related to theunique merchant identifier (411) can be protected via credentialinformation such as username and password. The mobile application (407)is configured to authenticate the merchant based on the credentialinformation.

The merchant identifier (411) can be assigned to the merchant when themerchant installs and/or configures the mobile application (407) on themobile device (409). For example, after the merchant signs up for theservices provided by the portal (143), the merchant is prompted to setup username and password. After the merchant passes authenticationoperations on the mobile application (407), the merchant identifier(411) is stored in the mobile application (407) or mobile device (409)to represent the merchant.

For example, when the merchant enrolls in a program with a merchantaggregator (221) illustrated in FIG. 11, the merchant identifier (411)can be assigned to identify the merchant in both the merchant aggregator(221) and the data warehouse (149).

The mobile application (407) can be configured to instruct the merchantto position the mobile device (409) at or near the transaction terminal(105) to obtain a location (413) of the mobile device (409) thatrepresents the location of the transaction terminal (105). The mobileapplication (407) then transmits the location (413) to the portal (143)for association with the merchant identifier (411) in the data warehouse(149).

In FIG. 14, the portal (143) is configured to provide an account number(302) to the mobile application (407) in response to receiving thelocation (413). The portal (143) stores data in the data warehouse (149)to temporarily associate the account number (302) to the location (413).

In FIG. 14, the account number (302) is independent from the merchantaccount (148) in which the merchant receives payments processed by anacquirer processor (147) on behalf of the merchant. The account number(302) assigned to temporarily represent the location (413) and/or themerchant identifier (411) in the data warehouse (149) can be a one-timeaccount number, or be set to expire within a short period of time.

The period of time in which the account number (302) can be reduced tosuch that if the mobile device (409) is in close proximity to thetransaction terminal (105), the account number (302) presented by themobile application (407) can be used on the transaction terminal (105)to initiate a transaction within the period of time, and if the mobiledevice (409) is not in close proximity to the transaction terminal(105), it would be difficult to use the account number (302) presentedby the mobile application (407) on the transaction terminal (105) toinitiate a transaction within the period of time in which the accountnumber (302) is valid.

For example, the mobile application (407) may display the account number(302) to allow the merchant to key in the account number (302) on thetransaction terminal (105) to initiate an authorization request for atransaction in an account uniquely identified by the account number(302).

For example, the mobile application (407) may include a near fieldcommunication device that is configured to communicate the accountnumber (302) to the transaction terminal (105) via near fieldcommunication. When the mobile device (409) and the transaction terminal(105) are in range for near field communication, the location (413) ofthe mobile device (409) as determined by the mobile device (409)represents an accurate measurement of the location (413) of thetransaction terminal (105). The mobile application (407) can beconfigured to determine the location (413) for transmission to theportal (143) while the mobile device (409) and the transaction terminal(105) are in range for near field communication, such as before, during,or after the communication of the account number (302) to thetransaction terminal (105) via near field communication.

In some implementations, the mobile device (409) can be configured toestablish a wired or wireless communication connection with thetransaction terminal (105) to provide the account number (302). Examplesof such a communication connection include a Bluetooth connection, apersonal wireless area network communication connection, a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) connection, etc. The use of a wired communicationconnection or a wireless connection of a short communication range canimprove the accuracy of the location (413) measured using the locationdetermination system of the mobile device (409), such as the GPSreceiver (403).

In FIG. 14, the transaction terminal (105) has a terminal identifier(401) that is associated with the merchant account (148) in the paymenttransaction processing network interconnected by a transaction handler(103). After the authorization request for the transaction made on thetransaction terminal (105) using the account number (302) provided viathe mobile application (407) is processed by the transaction handler(103), a transaction record (301) for the transaction is generated andstored in the data warehouse (149) that is coupled with both thetransaction handler (103) and the portal (143). The transaction record(301) includes the account number (302) provided to the transactionterminal (105) via the mobile application (407) and the terminalidentifier (401) of the transaction terminal (105).

If the transaction corresponding to the transaction record (301) isdetermined to be valid (e.g., within the predetermined time period inwhich the account number (302) is valid and associated with the location(413), within the predetermined limit on number of uses of the accountnumber (302)), the portal (143) and/or the transaction handler (103) (ora separate computing device) extracts the terminal identifier (401) fromthe transaction record (301) and stores data in the data warehouse (149)to associate the terminal identifier (401) with the location (413)measured for the transaction terminal (105) and the merchant identifier(411).

After the temporary association between the account number (302) andmerchant information (225) is replaced in the data warehouse (149) withthe association between the terminal identifier (401) and the merchantinformation (225), the merchant information (225) can be identified andused for transactions initiated on the transaction terminal (105) of themerchant. When a subsequent transaction includes the terminal identifier(401), the transaction can be identified to be at the location (413) andwith the merchant represented by the merchant identifier (411).

For example, if an offer (186) (e.g., illustrated in FIG. 9 or 11)requires a payment transaction with the merchant identified by themerchant identifier (411), the transaction handler (103) and/or theportal (143) can be configured to detect such a payment transactionbased on the terminal identifiers (e.g., 401) associated with themerchant identifier (411).

The merchant may have a plurality of transaction terminals (e.g., 105),and the mobile application (411) can be used multiple times to measurethe locations (e.g., 413) of the transaction terminal (e.g., 105),associate the measured locations (e.g., 413) with the terminalidentifiers (e.g., 401) of the respective transaction terminals (e.g.,105), and associate the terminal identifiers (e.g., 401) of the merchantwith the merchant identifier (411) of the merchant.

The portal (143) may provide different one-time account numbers (e.g.,302) for identification of the different transaction terminals (e.g.,105) of the merchant. Alternatively, the account number (302) may beconfigured to be valid for use multiple times within a period of time.

When the account number (302) can be used multiple times on differenttransaction terminals (e.g., 105) of the merchant, the system may beconfigured to measure one location (413) representing the set of thetransaction terminals (e.g., 105). Alternatively, the transactionhandler (103) and/or the portal (143) may correlate the transactionsinitiated on the transaction terminals (e.g., 105) and localmeasurements based on time sequence.

For example, the mobile application (407) may provide the account number(302) to initiate an authorization request for a transaction on thetransaction terminal (105) and report the location (413) measured forthe transaction terminal (105) within a short period of time (e.g.,shorter than a time period for the merchant to move the mobile device toanother transaction terminal). Thus, the authorization request generatedfrom the transaction terminal (105) can be corrected to the location(413) measured from the transaction terminal (105) based on thetimestamp associated with the reporting of the measured location (413)and the timestamp of the authorization request.

Alternatively or in combination, different transaction amounts can beused to tell the different transaction terminals (105) apart. Forexample, during the identification of the transaction terminal (105),the mobile application (407) presents not only the account number (302),but also the transaction amount of the transaction to be initiated onthe transaction terminal (105). Thus, the transaction for the particulartransaction terminal (105) can be identified based on the combination ofthe transaction amount and the account number (302).

FIG. 15 shows a method to identify a merchant according to oneembodiment. For example, the method of FIG. 15 can be implemented in asystem illustrated in FIG. 14. The data associating the terminalidentifier (401) with the merchant information (225) can be used insystems illustrated in other figures, such as FIGS. 1, 9, 11 and/or 12.

In FIG. 15, a computing apparatus/system is configured to: provide (421)a mobile application (407) on a mobile device (409) having a positiondetermination system (e.g., GPS receiver (403)); authenticate (423),using the mobile application (407), a merchant represented by a merchantidentifier (411) to perform operations in association with the merchantidentifier (411); determine (425) a position of the mobile device (409)using the mobile application (407) while the mobile device (409) is nearor co-located with a transaction terminal (401) of the merchant, suchthat the position can be used as a measurement of the location (413) ofthe transaction terminal (401); in association with the merchantidentifier (411), communicate (427) the position (e.g., location (413))to a portal (143) and receive an account number (302) from the portal;initiate (429), on the transaction terminal (105), an authorizationrequest for a transaction in an account specified by the account number(302); extract (431) a terminal identifier (401) of the transactionterminal (105) from the authorization request that identifies theaccount number (302); and replace (433) the account number (302) withthe terminal identifier (401) for association with the position (e.g.,location (413)) and/or the merchant identifier (411).

The computing apparatus/system may include one or more of the portal(143), the data warehouse (149), the mobile device (409), thetransaction terminal (105), and the transaction handler (103).

For example, the computing system can be implemented using one or moredata processing systems illustrated in FIG. 7, each of which has atleast one microprocessor (173) and memory (167) storing instructionsconfigured to instruct the at least one microprocessor to performoperations. The computing system may include: a transaction handler(103) configured to process payment transactions in a payment processingnetwork and generate transaction data (106) recording the paymenttransactions processed by the transaction handler; and a portal (143)configured to communicate with a mobile application (407) executing in amobile device (409) having a communication device (405) and a GPSreceiver (403), where the mobile application (407) is configured toinstruct the GPS receiver (403) to determine a position (e.g., location(413)) of the mobile device (409) while the mobile device (409) ispositioned in the vicinity of a transaction terminal (105) of amerchant, authenticating the merchant represented by a merchantidentifier (411). After the merchant is authenticated via the mobileapplication (407), the portal (143) communicates with the mobileapplication (407), via the communication device (405), to receive theposition (e.g., location (413)) from the mobile application (407) andprovides an account number (302) to the mobile application (407) for theinitiation of a transaction on the transaction terminal (105).

The computing system may further include a data warehouse (149) coupledwith the portal (143) and the transaction handler (103) to storemerchant information (225), including the position (e.g., location(413)) received from the mobile application (407), where the position(e.g., location (413)) is stored in association with the merchantidentifier (411) that uniquely identifies the merchant among a pluralityof merchants in the data warehouse (149). The data warehouse (149) mayfurther store first data associating the account number (302) with themerchant information (225), and a transaction record (301) of thetransaction initiated, on the transaction terminal (105) of themerchant, using the account number (302) while the account number (302)is associated with the merchant information (225), where the transactionrecord (301) includes the account number (302) and the terminalidentifier (401) of the transaction terminal (105).

The computing system is configured, via instructions, to identify thetransaction record (301) based on the account number (302), extract theterminal identifier (401) from the identified transaction record (301),identify the merchant information (225) that is associated with theaccount number (302) in the data warehouse (149), and store in the datawarehouse (149) second data associating the terminal identifier (401)with the merchant information (225).

The computing system may remove the first data associating the accountnumber (302) with the merchant information (225), after the second dataassociating the terminal identifier (401) with the merchant information(225) is stored in the data warehouse (149).

The computing system can be further configured to: detect a subsequenttransaction initiated on the transaction terminal (105) having theterminal identifier (401); determine the terminal identifier (401) usedin the subsequent transaction; and determine the location (413) of thesubsequent transaction and the merchant identifier (411) of thesubsequent transaction based on matching the terminal identifier (401)used in the subsequent transaction and the terminal identifier (401) inthe second data.

The account number (302) can be, for example, a one-time account number(302) valid for one time use. The one-time account number (302) can begenerated in response to receiving the location (413) from the mobileapplication (407), or in anticipation of the mobile application (407)submitting the location (413).

The mobile device can be configured, for example, to present the accountnumber (302) on a display device and determine the position (e.g.,location (413)) of the mobile device (409) while the account number(302) is presented on the display device. The time period of the displayof the account number (302) on the mobile application (407) can belimited to encourage the determination of the position (e.g., location(413)) of the mobile device (409) in the vicinity of the transactionterminal (105).

The mobile device (409) can be configured to communicate the accountnumber (302) to the transaction terminal (105) via near fieldcommunication, and determine the position of the mobile device (409) asthe measured location (413) of the transaction terminal (105) while themobile device (409) and the transaction terminal (105) are incommunication range for near field communication.

The mobile device (409) can also be implemented using a data processingsystem illustrated in FIG. 7. For example, the mobile device (409)includes a communication device (405), a GPS receiver (403), at leastone microprocessor (173) coupled with the communication device (405) andthe GPS receiver (403), and memory (167) storing instructions configuredto instruct the at least one microprocessor (173) to perform operations.The instructions include a mobile application (407) configured to:authenticate a merchant represented by a merchant identifier (411);determine, using the GPS receiver (403), a location (413) of the mobiledevice (409) while the mobile device (409) is positioned in the vicinityof a transaction terminal (105) of the merchant; and communicate, usingthe communication device (405), with the portal (143) to provide thelocation (413) in association with the merchant identifier (411), and toreceive an account number (302) for the initiation of a transactionusing the transaction terminal (105).

The portal (143) is coupled with a data warehouse (149) storingtransaction data (109) (as illustrated in FIG. 1) recording paymenttransactions processed by the transaction handler (103) of a paymentprocessing network, and the data warehouse (149) is coupled with theportal (143) and the transaction handler (103) to store: merchantinformation (225), such as the location (413) received from the mobileapplication (407) and the merchant identifier (411); first dataassociating the account number (302) with the merchant information(225), before a terminal identifier of the transaction terminal (106) ofthe merchant replaces it with the account number (302); and atransaction record (301) of the transaction initiated using the accountnumber (302) on the transaction terminal (105) of the merchant while theaccount number (302) is associated with the merchant information (225),where the transaction record (301) includes the account number (302) anda terminal identifier (401) of the transaction terminal (401).

The portal (143) can be configured to identify the transaction record(301) having the account number (302), extract the terminal identifier(401) from the transaction record (301), identify the merchantinformation (225) associated with the account number (302) in the datawarehouse (149) in accordance with the first data, and store in the datawarehouse (149) second data associating the terminal identifier (401)with the merchant information (225).

The account number (302) may be set to be valid for one time use withina predetermined period of time. The mobile device (407) may furtherinclude a display device, on which the mobile application (409) isconfigured to present the account number (302) while determining thelocation (413) of the mobile device (409).

The account number (302) may be displayed at least in a bar code formatsuch that a bar code scanner of the transaction terminal (105) can readthe account number (302). Alternatively, the transaction terminal (105)may include a key pad to receive manual input of the account number(302) from the person using the mobile device (409). Alternatively, themobile device (409) may include a near field communication deviceconfigured to communicate/present the account number (302) to thetransaction terminal (105) to initiate the transaction corresponding tothe transaction record (301). When the near field communication device(405) is used, the mobile device (409) can be configured to determineand report the location (413) of the mobile device (409) while themobile device (409) and the transaction terminal (105) are incommunication range for near field communication.

In some instances, the mobile device (409) may be integrated within thetransaction terminal (105); and the mobile application (407) can bedownloaded and installed on the transaction terminal (105) to performthe operations described herein.

The mobile application (407) may be provided by the portal (143) forinstallation on the mobile device (409) of the merchant. The merchant isprompted to provide input to the mobile application (407) toauthenticate that a user of the mobile application (407) is authorizedby the merchant represented by a merchant identifier (411) that uniquelyidentifies the merchant in an application outside the payment processingnetwork. The mobile application (407) is used to provide an accountnumber (302) to a transaction terminal (105) directly or indirectly,while measuring a location (413) of the transaction terminal (105) usinga GPS receiver (403). Thus, the measured location (413) of thetransaction terminal (105) can be associated with the merchantidentifier (411), and after the terminal identifier (401) of thetransaction terminal (105) is extracted from the authorization requestgenerated on the transaction terminal (105) using the account number(302), the terminal identifier (401) can be associated with the measuredlocation (413) of the transaction terminal (105) and the merchantidentifier (411). The operations can be repeated for differenttransaction terminals (e.g., 105) to measure their locations (e.g., 413)and to associate their terminal identifiers (401) with the merchantidentifier (411). The merchant information (225) may include informationsuch as the business name of the merchant, a street or mailing addressof the merchant, online access credential, etc.

The computing apparatus can be further implemented, optionally, toperform other operations discussed below, such as the operationsdiscussed in the section entitled “TRANSACTION DATA BASED SERVICES.”Some of the hardware arrangements are discussed in the sections entitled“CENTRALIZED DATA WAREHOUSE” and “HARDWARE.”

Transaction Data Based Services

FIG. 1 illustrates a system to provide services based on transactiondata according to one embodiment. In FIG. 1, the system includes atransaction terminal (105) to initiate financial transactions for a user(101), a transaction handler (103) to generate transaction data (109)from processing the financial transactions of the user (101) (and thefinancial transactions of other users), a profile generator (121) togenerate transaction profiles (127) based on the transaction data (109)to provide information/intelligence about user preferences and spendingpatterns, a point of interaction (107) to provide information and/oroffers to the user (101), a user tracker (113) to generate user data(125) to identify the user (101) using the point of interaction (107), aprofile selector (129) to select a profile (131) specific to the user(101) identified by the user data (125), and an advertisement selector(133) to select, identify, generate, adjust, prioritize and/orpersonalize advertisements for presentation to the user (101) on thepoint of interaction (107) via a media controller (115).

In FIG. 1, the system further includes a correlator (117) to correlateuser specific advertisement data (119) with transactions resulting fromthe user specific advertisement data (119). The correlation results(123) can be used by the profile generator (121) to improve thetransaction profiles (127).

The transaction profiles (127) of one embodiment are generated from thetransaction data (109) in a way as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. Forexample, in FIG. 2, an aggregated spending profile (341) is generatedvia the factor analysis (327) and cluster analysis (329) to summarize(335) the spending patterns/behaviors reflected in the transactionrecords (301).

In one embodiment, a data warehouse (149) as illustrated in FIG. 4 iscoupled with the transaction handler (103) to store the transaction data(109) and other data, such as account data (111), transaction profiles(127) and correlation results (123). In FIG. 4, a portal (143) iscoupled with the data warehouse (149) to provide data or informationderived from the transaction data (109), in response to a query requestfrom a third party or as an alert or notification message.

In FIG. 4, the transaction handler (103) is coupled between an issuerprocessor (145) in control of a consumer account (146) and an acquirerprocessor (147) in control of a merchant account (148). An accountidentification device (141) is configured to carry the accountinformation (142) that identifies the consumer account (146) with theissuer processor (145) and provide the account information (142) to thetransaction terminal (105) of a merchant to initiate a transactionbetween the user (101) and the merchant.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate examples of transaction terminals (105) andaccount identification devices (141). FIG. 7 illustrates the structureof a data processing system (170) that can be used to implement, withmore or fewer elements, at least some of the components in the system,such as the point of interaction (107), the transaction handler (103),the portal (143), the data warehouse, the account identification device(141), the transaction terminal (105), the user tracker (113), theprofile generator (121), the profile selector (129), the advertisementselector (133), the media controller (115), etc. Some embodiments usemore or fewer components than those illustrated, such as, in FIGS. 1,4-7, and other figures, as further discussed in the section entitled“VARIATIONS.”

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) relates to financialtransactions processed by the transaction handler (103); and the accountdata (111) relates to information about the account holders involved inthe transactions. Further data, such as merchant data that relates tothe location, business, products and/or services of the merchants thatreceive payments from account holders for their purchases, can be usedin the generation of the transaction profiles (127, 341).

In one embodiment, the financial transactions are made via an accountidentification device (141), such as financial transaction cards (e.g.,credit cards, debit cards, banking cards, etc.); the financialtransaction cards may be embodied in various devices, such as plasticcards, chips, radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, mobilephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.; and the financialtransaction cards may be represented by account identifiers (e.g.,account numbers or aliases). In one embodiment, the financialtransactions are made via directly using the account information (142),without physically presenting the account identification device (141).

Further features, modifications and details are provided in varioussections of this description.

Centralized Data Warehouse

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) couples with acentralized data warehouse (149) organized around the transaction data(109). For example, the centralized data warehouse (149) may include,and/or support the determination of, spend band distribution,transaction count and amount, merchant categories, merchant by state,cardholder segmentation by velocity scores, and spending within merchanttarget, competitive set and cross-section. For example, the centralizeddata warehouse (149) may include the advertisement data (135) and/oroffers of benefits such as discount, reward, points, cashback, etc. Theoffers can be communicated to the users (e.g., 101) via theadvertisement data (135) or as part of the advertisement data (135).

In one embodiment, the centralized data warehouse (149) providescentralized management but allows decentralized execution. For example,a third party strategic marketing analyst, statistician, marketer,promoter, business leader, etc., may access the centralized datawarehouse (149) to analyze customer and shopper data, to providefollow-up analyses of customer contributions, to develop propensitymodels for increased conversion of marketing campaigns, to developsegmentation models for marketing, etc. The centralized data warehouse(149) can be used to manage advertisement campaigns and analyze responseprofitability.

In one embodiment, the centralized data warehouse (149) includesmerchant data (e.g., data about sellers), customer/business data (e.g.,data about buyers), and transaction records (301) between sellers andbuyers over time. The centralized data warehouse (149) can be used tosupport corporate sales forecasting, fraud analysis reporting,sales/customer relationship management (CRM) business intelligence,credit risk prediction and analysis, advanced authorization reporting,merchant benchmarking, business intelligence for small business,rewards, etc.

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) is combined with externaldata, such as surveys, benchmarks, search engine statistics,demographics, competition information, emails, etc., to flag key eventsand data values, to set customer, merchant, data or event triggers, andto drive new transactions and new customer contacts.

Transaction Profile

In FIG. 1, the profile generator (121) generates transaction profiles(127) based on the transaction data (109), the account data (111),and/or other data, such as non-transactional data, wish lists, merchantprovided information, address information, information from socialnetwork websites, information from credit bureaus, information fromsearch engines, and other examples discussed in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/614,603, filed Nov. 9, 2009, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub.No. 2011/0054981, and entitled “Analyzing Local Non-Transactional Datawith Transactional Data in Predictive Models,” the disclosure of whichis hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) provide intelligenceinformation on the behavior, pattern, preference, propensity, tendency,frequency, trend, and budget of the user (101) in making purchases. Inone embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) include information aboutwhat the user (101) owns, such as points, miles, or other rewardscurrency, available credit, and received offers, such as coupons loadedinto the accounts of the user (101). In one embodiment, the transactionprofiles (127) include information based on past offer/coupon redemptionpatterns. In one embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) includeinformation on shopping patterns in retail stores as well as online,including frequency of shopping, amount spent in each shopping trip,distance of merchant location (retail) from the address of the accountholder(s), etc.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) (and/or the portal(143)) is configured to provide at least part of the intelligence forthe prioritization, generation, selection, customization and/oradjustment of the advertisement for delivery within a transactionprocess involving the transaction handler (103). For example, theadvertisement may be presented to a customer in response to the customermaking a payment via the transaction handler (103).

Some of the transaction profiles (127) are specific to the user (101),or to an account of the user (101), or to a group of users of which theuser (101) is a member, such as a household, family, company,neighborhood, city, or group identified by certain characteristicsrelated to online activities, offline purchase activities, merchantpropensity, etc.

The profile generator (121) may generate and update the transactionprofiles (127) in batch mode periodically, or generates the transactionprofiles (127) in real time, or just in time, in response to a requestreceived in the portal (143) for such profiles.

The transaction profiles (127) of one embodiment include the values fora set of parameters. Computing the values of the parameters may involvecounting transactions that meet one or more criteria, and/or building astatistically-based model in which one or more calculated values ortransformed values are put into a statistical algorithm that weightseach value to optimize its collective predictiveness for variouspredetermined purposes.

Further details and examples about the transaction profiles (127) in oneembodiment are provided in the section entitled “AGGREGATED SPENDINGPROFILE.”

Non-Transactional Data

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) is analyzed in connectionwith non-transactional data to generate transaction profiles (127)and/or to make predictive models.

In one embodiment, transactions are correlated with non-transactionalevents, such as news, conferences, shows, announcements, market changes,natural disasters, etc. to establish cause and effect relations topredict future transactions or spending patterns. For example,non-transactional data may include the geographic location of a newsevent, the date of an event from an events calendar, the name of aperformer for an upcoming concert, etc. The non-transactional data canbe obtained from various sources, such as newspapers, websites, blogs,social networking sites, etc.

When the cause and effect relationships between the transactions andnon-transactional events are known (e.g., based on prior researchresults, domain knowledge, expertise), the relationships can be used inpredictive models to predict future transactions or spending patterns,based on events that occurred recently or are happening in real time.

In one embodiment, the non-transactional data relates to events thathappened in a geographical area local to the user (101) that performedthe respective transactions. In one embodiment, a geographical area islocal to the user (101) when the distance from the user (101) tolocations in the geographical area is within a convenient range fordaily or regular travel, such as 20, 50 or 100 miles from an address ofthe user (101), or within the same city or zip code area of an addressof the user (101). Examples of analyses of local non-transactional datain connection with transaction data (109) in one embodiment are providedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/614,603, filed Nov. 9, 2009,assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2011/0054981, and entitled “AnalyzingLocal Non-Transactional Data with Transactional Data in PredictiveModels,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

In one embodiment, the non-transactional data is not limited to localnon-transactional data. For example, national non-transactional data canalso be used.

In one embodiment, the transaction records (301) are analyzed infrequency domain to identify periodic features in spending events. Theperiodic features in the past transaction records (301) can be used topredict the probability of a time window in which a similar transactionwould occur. For example, the analysis of the transaction data (109) canbe used to predict when a next transaction having the periodic featurewould occur, with which merchant, the probability of a repeatedtransaction with a certain amount, the probability of exception, theopportunity to provide an advertisement or offer such as a coupon, etc.In one embodiment, the periodic features are detected through countingthe number of occurrences of pairs of transactions that occurred withina set of predetermined time intervals and separating the transactionpairs based on the time intervals. Some examples and techniques for theprediction of future transactions based on the detection of periodicfeatures in one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/773,770, filed May 4, 2010, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2010/0280882, and entitled “Frequency-Based Transaction Prediction andProcessing,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

Techniques and details of predictive modeling in one embodiment areprovided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,119,103, 6,018,723, 6,658,393, 6,598,030,and 7,227,950, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated hereinby reference.

In one embodiment, offers are based on the point-of-service to offereedistance to allow the user (101) to obtain in-person services. In oneembodiment, the offers are selected based on transaction history andshopping patterns in the transaction data (109) and/or the distancebetween the user (101) and the merchant. In one embodiment, offers areprovided in response to a request from the user (101), or in response toa detection of the location of the user (101). Examples and details ofat least one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/767,218, filed Jun. 22, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2008/0319843, and entitled “Supply of Requested Offer Based on Point-ofService to Offeree Distance,” U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/755,575, filed May 30, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2008/0300973, and entitled “Supply of Requested Offer Based on OffereeTransaction History,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/855,042, filedSep. 13, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0076896, andentitled “Merchant Supplied Offer to a Consumer within a PredeterminedDistance,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/855,069, filed Sep. 13,2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0076925, and entitled“Offeree Requested Offer Based on Point-of Service to Offeree Distance,”and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/428,302, filed Apr. 22, 2009,assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0274627, and entitled “Receivingan Announcement Triggered by Location Data,” the disclosures of whichapplications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Targeting Advertisement

In FIG. 1, an advertisement selector (133) prioritizes, generates,selects, adjusts, and/or customizes the available advertisement data(135) to provide user specific advertisement data (119) based at leastin part on the user specific profile (131). The advertisement selector(133) uses the user specific profile (131) as a filter and/or a set ofcriteria to generate, identify, select and/or prioritize advertisementdata for the user (101). A media controller (115) delivers the userspecific advertisement data (119) to the point of interaction (107) forpresentation to the user (101) as the targeted and/or personalizedadvertisement.

In one embodiment, the user data (125) includes the characterization ofthe context at the point of interaction (107). Thus, the use of the userspecific profile (131), selected using the user data (125), includes theconsideration of the context at the point of interaction (107) inselecting the user specific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, in selecting the user specific advertisement data(119), the advertisement selector (133) uses not only the user specificprofile (131), but also information regarding the context at the pointof interaction (107). For example, in one embodiment, the user data(125) includes information regarding the context at the point ofinteraction (107); and the advertisement selector (133) explicitly usesthe context information in the generation or selection of the userspecific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, the advertisement selector (133) may query forspecific information regarding the user (101) before providing the userspecific advertisement data (119). The queries may be communicated tothe operator of the transaction handler (103) and, in particular, to thetransaction handler (103) or the profile generator (121). For example,the queries from the advertisement selector (133) may be transmitted andreceived in accordance with an application programming interface orother query interface of the transaction handler (103), the profilegenerator (121) or the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, the queries communicated from the advertisementselector (133) may request intelligence information regarding the user(101) at any level of specificity (e.g., segment level, individuallevel). For example, the queries may include a request for a certainfield or type of information in a cardholder's aggregate spendingprofile (341). As another example, the queries may include a request forthe spending level of the user (101) in a certain merchant category overa prior time period (e.g., six months).

In one embodiment, the advertisement selector (133) is operated by anentity that is separate from the entity that operates the transactionhandler (103). For example, the advertisement selector (133) may beoperated by a search engine, a publisher, an advertiser, an ad network,or an online merchant. The user specific profile (131) is provided tothe advertisement selector (133) to assist the customization of the userspecific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, advertising is targeted based on shopping patterns ina merchant category (e.g., as represented by a Merchant Category Code(MCC)) that has high correlation of spending propensity with othermerchant categories (e.g., other MCCs). For example, in the context of afirst MCC for a targeted audience, a profile identifying second MCCsthat have high correlation of spending propensity with the first MCC canbe used to select advertisements for the targeted audience.

In one embodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341) is used toprovide intelligence information about the spending patterns,preferences, and/or trends of the user (101). For example, a predictivemodel can be established based on the aggregated spending profile (341)to estimate the needs of the user (101). For example, the factor values(344) and/or the cluster ID (343) in the aggregated spending profile(341) can be used to determine the spending preferences of the user(101). For example, the channel distribution (345) in the aggregatedspending profile (341) can be used to provide a customized offertargeted for a particular channel, based on the spending patterns of theuser (101).

In one embodiment, mobile advertisements, such as offers and coupons,are generated and disseminated based on aspects of prior purchases, suchas timing, location, and nature of the purchases, etc. In oneembodiment, the size of the benefit of the offer or coupon is based onpurchase volume or spending amount of the prior purchase and/or thesubsequent purchase that may qualify for the redemption of the offer.Further details and examples of one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/960,162, filed Dec. 19, 2007, assignedU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0201226, and entitled “Mobile Coupon Methodand Portable Consumer Device for Utilizing Same,” the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, conditional rewards are provided to the user (101);and the transaction handler (103) monitors the transactions of the user(101) to identify redeemable rewards that have satisfied the respectiveconditions. In one embodiment, the conditional rewards are selectedbased on transaction data (109). Further details and examples of oneembodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/862,487,filed Sep. 27, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0082418, andentitled “Consumer Specific Conditional Rewards,” the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The techniques todetect the satisfied conditions of conditional rewards can also be usedto detect the transactions that satisfy the conditions specified tolocate the transactions that result from online activities, such asonline advertisements, searches, etc., to correlate the transactionswith the respective online activities.

Further details about targeted offer delivery in one embodiment areprovided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/185,332, filed Aug. 4,2008, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0030644, and entitled“Targeted Advertising by Payment Processor History of Cashless AcquiredMerchant Transaction on Issued Consumer Account,” and in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/849,793, filed Aug. 3, 2010, assigned U.S. Pat.App. Pub. No. 2011/0035280, and entitled “Systems and Methods forTargeted Advertisement Delivery,” the disclosures of which applicationsare hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Profile Matching

In FIG. 1, the user tracker (113) obtains and generates contextinformation about the user (101) at the point of interaction (107),including user data (125) that characterizes and/or identifies the user(101). The profile selector (129) selects a user specific profile (131)from the set of transaction profiles (127) generated by the profilegenerator (121), based on matching the characteristics of thetransaction profiles (127) and the characteristics of the user data(125). For example, the user data (125) indicates a set ofcharacteristics of the user (101); and the profile selector (129)selects the user specific profile (131) that is for a particular user ora group of users and that best matches the set of characteristicsspecified by the user data (125).

In one embodiment, the profile selector (129) receives the transactionprofiles (127) in a batch mode. The profile selector (129) selects theuser specific profile (131) from the batch of transaction profiles (127)based on the user data (125). Alternatively, the profile generator (121)generates the transaction profiles (127) in real time; and the profileselector (129) uses the user data (125) to query the profile generator(121) to generate the user specific profile (131) in real time, or justin time. The profile generator (121) generates the user specific profile(131) that best matches the user data (125).

In one embodiment, the user tracker (113) identifies the user (101)based on the user activity on the transaction terminal (105) (e.g.,having visited a set of websites, currently visiting a type of webpages, search behavior, etc.).

In one embodiment, the user data (125) includes an identifier of theuser (101), such as a global unique identifier (GUID), a personalaccount number (PAN) (e.g., credit card number, debit card number, orother card account number), or other identifiers that uniquely andpersistently identify the user (101) within a set of identifiers of thesame type. Alternatively, the user data (125) may include otheridentifiers, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the user(101), a name or user name of the user (101), or a browser cookie ID,which identify the user (101) in a local, temporary, transient and/oranonymous manner. Some of these identifiers of the user (101) may beprovided by publishers, advertisers, ad networks, search engines,merchants, or the user tracker (113). In one embodiment, suchidentifiers are correlated to the user (101) based on the overlapping orproximity of the time period of their usage to establish anidentification reference table.

In one embodiment, the identification reference table is used toidentify the account information (142) (e.g., account number (302))based on characteristics of the user (101) captured in the user data(125), such as browser cookie ID, IP addresses, and/or timestamps on theusage of the IP addresses. In one embodiment, the identificationreference table is maintained by the operator of the transaction handler(103). Alternatively, the identification reference table is maintainedby an entity other than the operator of the transaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, the user tracker (113) determines certaincharacteristics of the user (101) to describe a type or group of usersof which the user (101) is a member. The transaction profile of thegroup is used as the user specific profile (131). Examples of suchcharacteristics include geographical location or neighborhood, types ofonline activities, specific online activities, or merchant propensity.In one embodiment, the groups are defined based on aggregate information(e.g., by time of day, or household), or segment (e.g., by cluster,propensity, demographics, cluster IDs, and/or factor values). In oneembodiment, the groups are defined in part via one or more socialnetworks. For example, a group may be defined based on social distancesto one or more users on a social network website, interactions betweenusers on a social network website, and/or common data in social networkprofiles of the users in the social network website.

In one embodiment, the user data (125) may match different profiles at adifferent granularity or resolution (e.g., account, user, family,company, neighborhood, etc.), with different degrees of certainty. Theprofile selector (129) and/or the profile generator (121) may determineor select the user specific profile (131) with the finest granularity orresolution with acceptable certainty. Thus, the user specific profile(131) is most specific or closely related to the user (101).

In one embodiment, the advertisement selector (133) uses further data inprioritizing, selecting, generating, customizing and adjusting the userspecific advertisement data (119). For example, the advertisementselector (133) may use search data in combination with the user specificprofile (131) to provide benefits or offers to a user (101) at the pointof interaction (107). For example, the user specific profile (131) canbe used to personalize the advertisement, such as adjusting theplacement of the advertisement relative to other advertisements,adjusting the appearance of the advertisement, etc.

Browser Cookie

In one embodiment, the user data (125) uses browser cookie informationto identify the user (101). The browser cookie information is matched toaccount information (142) or the account number (302) to identify theuser specific profile (131), such as aggregated spending profile (341)to present effective, timely, and relevant marketing information to theuser (101), via the preferred communication channel (e.g., mobilecommunications, web, mail, email, POS, etc.) within a window of timethat could influence the spending behavior of the user (101). Based onthe transaction data (109), the user specific profile (131) can improveaudience targeting for online advertising. Thus, customers will getbetter advertisements and offers presented to them; and the advertiserswill achieve better return-on-investment for their advertisementcampaigns.

In one embodiment, the browser cookie that identifies the user (101) inonline activities, such as web browsing, online searching, and usingsocial networking applications, can be matched to an identifier of theuser (101) in account data (111), such as the account number (302) of afinancial payment card of the user (101) or the account information(142) of the account identification device (141) of the user (101). Inone embodiment, the identifier of the user (101) can be uniquelyidentified via matching IP address, timestamp, cookie ID and/or otheruser data (125) observed by the user tracker (113).

In one embodiment, a look up table is used to map browser cookieinformation (e.g., IP address, timestamp, cookie ID) to the account data(111) that identifies the user (101) in the transaction handler (103).The look up table may be established via correlating overlapping orcommon portions of the user data (125) observed by different entities ordifferent user trackers (113).

For example, in one embodiment, a first user tracker (113) observes thecard number of the user (101) at a particular IP address for a timeperiod identified by a timestamp (e.g., via an online payment process);a second user tracker (113) observes the user (101) having a cookie IDat the same IP address for a time period near or overlapping with thetime period observed by the first user tracker (113). Thus, the cookieID as observed by the second user tracker (113) can be linked to thecard number of the user (101) as observed by the first user tracker(113). The first user tracker (113) may be operated by the same entityoperating the transaction handler (103) or by a different entity. Oncethe correlation between the cookie ID and the card number is establishedvia a database or a look up table, the cookie ID can be subsequentlyused to identify the card number of the user (101) and the account data(111).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to observe a cardnumber of a user (101) while the user (101) uses an IP address to makean online transaction. Thus, the portal (143) can identify a consumeraccount (146) based on correlating an IP address used to identify theuser (101) and IP addresses recorded in association with the consumeraccount (146).

For example, in one embodiment, when the user (101) makes a paymentonline by submitting the account information (142) to the transactionterminal (105) (e.g., an online store), the transaction handler (103)obtains the IP address from the transaction terminal (105) via theacquirer processor (147). The transaction handler (103) stores data toindicate the use of the account information (142) at the IP address atthe time of the transaction request. When an IP address in the queryreceived in the portal (143) matches the IP address previously recordedby the transaction handler (103), the portal (143) determines that theuser (101) identified by the IP address in the request is the same user(101) associated with the account of the transaction initiated at the IPaddress. In one embodiment, a match is found when the time of the queryrequest is within a predetermined time period from the transactionrequest, such as a few minutes, one hour, a day, etc. In one embodiment,the query may also include a cookie ID representing the user (101).Thus, through matching the IP address, the cookie ID is associated withthe account information (142) in a persistent way.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) obtains the IP address of the onlinetransaction directly. For example, in one embodiment, a user (101)chooses to use a password in the account data (111) to protect theaccount information (142) for online transactions. When the accountinformation (142) is entered into the transaction terminal (105) (e.g.,an online store or an online shopping cart system), the user (101) isconnected to the portal (143) for the verification of the password(e.g., via a pop up window, or via redirecting the web browser of theuser (101)). The transaction handler (103) accepts the transactionrequest after the password is verified via the portal (143). Throughthis verification process, the portal (143) and/or the transactionhandler (103) obtain the IP address of the user (101) at the time theaccount information (142) is used.

In one embodiment, the web browser of the user (101) communicates theuser provided password to the portal (143) directly without goingthrough the transaction terminal (105) (e.g., the server of themerchant). Alternatively, the transaction terminal (105) and/or theacquirer processor (147) may relay the password communication to theportal (143) or the transaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to identify theconsumer account (146) based on the IP address identified in the userdata (125) through mapping the IP address to a street address. Forexample, in one embodiment, the user data (125) includes an IP addressto identify the user (101); and the portal (143) can use a service tomap the IP address to a street address. For example, an Internet serviceprovider knows the street address of the currently assigned IP address.Once the street address is identified, the portal (143) can use theaccount data (111) to identify the consumer account (146) that has acurrent address at the identified street address. Once the consumeraccount (146) is identified, the portal (143) can provide a transactionprofile (131) specific to the consumer account (146) of the user (101).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) uses a plurality of methods toidentify consumer accounts (146) based on the user data (125). Theportal (143) combines the results from the different methods todetermine the most likely consumer account (146) for the user data(125).

Details about the identification of consumer account (146) based on userdata (125) in one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/849,798, filed Aug. 3, 2010, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub.No. 2011/0093327, and entitled “Systems and Methods to MatchIdentifiers,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

Close the Loop

In one embodiment, the correlator (117) is used to “close the loop” forthe tracking of consumer behavior across an on-line activity and an“off-line” activity that results at least in part from the on-lineactivity. In one embodiment, online activities, such as searching, webbrowsing, social networking, and/or consuming online advertisements, arecorrelated with respective transactions to generate the correlationresult (123) in FIG. 1. The respective transactions may occur offline,in “brick and mortar” retail stores, or online but in a context outsidethe online activities, such as a credit card purchase that is performedin a way not visible to a search company that facilitates the searchactivities.

The correlator (117) is configured in one embodiment to identifytransactions resulting from searches or online advertisements. Forexample, in response to a query about the user (101) from the usertracker (113), the correlator (117) identifies an offline transactionperformed by the user (101) and sends the correlation result (123) aboutthe offline transaction to the user tracker (113), which allows the usertracker (113) to combine the information about the offline transactionand the online activities to provide significant marketing advantages.

For example, a marketing department could correlate an advertisingbudget to actual sales. For example, a marketer can use the correlationresult (123) to study the effect of certain prioritization strategies,customization schemes, etc. on the impact on the actual sales. Forexample, the correlation result (123) can be used to adjust orprioritize advertisement placement on a web site, a search engine, asocial networking site, an online marketplace, or the like.

In one embodiment, the profile generator (121) uses the correlationresult (123) to augment the transaction profiles (127) with dataindicating the rate of conversion from searches or advertisements topurchase transactions. In one embodiment, the correlation result (123)is used to generate predictive models to determine what a user (101) islikely to purchase when the user (101) is searching using certainkeywords or when the user (101) is presented with an advertisement oroffer. In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to report thecorrelation result (123) to a partner, such as a search engine, apublisher, or a merchant, to allow the partner to use the correlationresult (123) to measure the effectiveness of advertisements and/orsearch result customization, to arrange rewards, etc.

In one embodiment, the correlator (117) matches the online activitiesand the transactions based on matching the user data (125) provided bythe user tracker (113) and the records of the transactions, such astransaction data (109) or transaction records (301). In anotherembodiment, the correlator (117) matches the online activities and thetransactions based on the redemption of offers/benefits provided in theuser specific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to receive a set ofconditions and an identification of the user (101), determine whetherthere is any transaction of the user (101) that satisfies the set ofconditions, and if so, provide indications of the transactions thatsatisfy the conditions and/or certain details about the transactions,which allows the requester to correlate the transactions with certainuser activities, such as searching, web browsing, consumingadvertisements, etc.

In one embodiment, the requester may not know the account number (302)of the user (101); and the portal (143) is to map the identifierprovided in the request to the account number (302) of the user (101) toprovide the requested information. Examples of the identifier beingprovided in the request to identify the user (101) include anidentification of an iFrame of a web page visited by the user (101), abrowser cookie ID, an IP address and the day and time corresponding tothe use of the IP address, etc.

The information provided by the portal (143) can be used in pre-purchasemarketing activities, such as customizing content or offers,prioritizing content or offers, selecting content or offers, etc., basedon the spending pattern of the user (101). The content that iscustomized, prioritized, selected, or recommended may be the searchresults, blog entries, items for sale, etc.

The information provided by the portal (143) can be used inpost-purchase activities. For example, the information can be used tocorrelate an offline purchase with online activities. For example, theinformation can be used to determine purchases made in response to mediaevents, such as television programs, advertisements, news announcements,etc.

Details about profile delivery, online activity to offline purchasetracking, techniques to identify the user specific profile (131) basedon user data (125) (such as IP addresses), and targeted delivery ofadvertisement/offer/benefit in some embodiments are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/849,789, filed Aug. 3, 2010, assignedU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2011/0035278, and entitled “Systems and Methodsfor Closing the Loop between Online Activities and Offline Purchases,”the disclosure of which application is incorporated herein by reference.

Loyalty Program

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) uses the account data(111) to store information for third party loyalty programs.

FIG. 8 shows the structure of account data (111) for providing loyaltyprograms according to one embodiment. In FIG. 8, data related to a thirdparty loyalty program may include an identifier of the loyalty benefitofferor (183) that is linked to a set of loyalty program rules (185) andloyalty record (187) for the loyalty program activities of the accountidentifier (181). In one embodiment, at least part of the data relatedto the third party loyalty program is stored under the accountidentifier (181) of the user (101), such as the loyalty record (187).

FIG. 8 illustrates the data related to one third party loyalty programof a loyalty benefit offeror (183). In one embodiment, the accountidentifier (181) may be linked to multiple loyalty benefit offerors(e.g., 183), corresponding to different third party loyalty programs.The third party loyalty program of the loyalty benefit offeror (183)provides the user (101), identified by the account identifier (181),with benefits, such as discounts, rewards, incentives, cash back, gifts,coupons, and/or privileges.

In one embodiment, the association between the account identifier (181)and the loyalty benefit offeror (183) in the account data (111)indicates that the user (101) having the account identifier (181) is amember of the loyalty program. Thus, the user (101) may use the accountidentifier (181) to access privileges afforded to the members of theloyalty programs, such as rights to access a member only area, facility,store, product or service, discounts extended only to members, oropportunities to participate in certain events, buy certain items, orreceive certain services reserved for members.

In one embodiment, it is not necessary to make a purchase to use theprivileges. The user (101) may enjoy the privileges based on the statusof being a member of the loyalty program. The user (101) may use theaccount identifier (181) to show the status of being a member of theloyalty program.

In one embodiment, when the account identifier (181) is used to identifythe user (101) as a member to access member privileges, the transactionhandler (103) stores information about the access of the correspondingmember privilege in loyalty record (187). The profile generator (121)may use the information accumulated in the loyalty record (187) toenhance transaction profiles (127) and provide the user (101) withpersonalized/targeted advertisements, with or without further offers ofbenefit (e.g., discounts, incentives, rebates, cash back, rewards,etc.).

In one embodiment, the association of the account identifier (181) andthe loyalty benefit offeror (183) also allows the loyalty benefitofferor (183) to access at least a portion of the account data (111)relevant to the loyalty program, such as the loyalty record (187) andcertain information about the user (101), such as name, address, andother demographic data.

In one embodiment, the loyalty program allows the user (101) toaccumulate benefits according to loyalty program rules (185), such asreward points, cash back, levels of discounts, etc. For example, theuser (101) may accumulate reward points for transactions that satisfythe loyalty program rules (185); and the user (101) may use the rewardpoints to redeem cash, gift, discounts, etc. In one embodiment, theloyalty record (187) stores the accumulated benefits; and thetransaction handler (103) updates the loyalty record (187) associatedwith the loyalty benefit offeror (183) and the account identifier (181),when events that satisfy the loyalty program rules occur.

In one embodiment, the accumulated benefits as indicated in the loyaltyrecord (187) can be redeemed when the account identifier (181) is usedto perform a payment transaction, when the payment transaction satisfiesthe loyalty program rules. For example, the user (101) may redeem anumber of points to offset or reduce an amount of the purchase price.

A method to provide loyalty programs of one embodiment includes the useof the transaction handler (103) as part of a computing apparatus. Thecomputing apparatus processes a plurality of payment card transactions.After the computing apparatus receives a request to track transactionsfor a loyalty program, such as the loyalty program rules (185), thecomputing apparatus stores and updates loyalty program information inresponse to transactions occurring in the loyalty program. The computingapparatus provides to a customer (e.g., 101) an offer of a benefit whenthe customer satisfies a condition defined in the loyalty program, suchas the loyalty program rules (185). In one embodiment, the loyaltybenefit as identified in the loyalty record (187) can be redeemed inconnection with a transaction in a way the benefit of an offer stored inassociation with the account identifier (181) is redeemed.

Examples of loyalty programs through collaboration between collaborativeconstituents in a payment processing system, including the transactionhandler (103) in one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/767,202, filed Jun. 22, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub.No. 2008/0059302, and entitled “Loyalty Program Service,” U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/848,112, filed Aug. 30, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat.App. Pub. No. 2008/0059306, and entitled “Loyalty Program IncentiveDetermination,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/848,179, filedAug. 30, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0059307, andentitled “Loyalty Program Parameter Collaboration,” the disclosures ofwhich applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Examples of processing the redemption of accumulated loyalty benefitsvia the transaction handler (103) in one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/835,100, filed Aug. 7, 2007, assignedU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0059303, and entitled “TransactionEvaluation for Providing Rewards,” the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the incentive, reward, or benefit provided in theloyalty program is based on the presence of correlated relatedtransactions. For example, in one embodiment, an incentive is providedif a financial payment card is used in a reservation system to make areservation and the financial payment card is subsequently used to payfor the reserved good or service. Further details and examples of oneembodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/945,907,filed Nov. 27, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2008/0071587, andentitled “Incentive Wireless Communication Reservation,” the disclosureof which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) provides centralizedloyalty program management, reporting and membership services. In oneembodiment, membership data is downloaded from the transaction handler(103) to acceptance point devices, such as the transaction terminal(105). In one embodiment, loyalty transactions are reported from theacceptance point devices to the transaction handler (103); and the dataindicating the loyalty points, rewards, benefits, etc. are stored on theaccount identification device (141). Further details and examples of oneembodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/401,504,filed Mar. 27, 2003, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2004/0054581, andentitled “Network Centric Loyalty System,” the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103) isused to manage reward or loyalty programs for entities such as issuers,merchants, etc. The cardholders, such as the user (101), are rewardedwith offers/benefits from merchants. The portal (143) and/or thetransaction handler (103) track the transaction records for themerchants for the reward or loyalty programs. Further details andexamples of one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/688,423, filed Mar. 20, 2007, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2008/0195473, and entitled “Reward Program Manager,” the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, a loyalty program includes multiple entitiesproviding access to detailed transaction data, which allows theflexibility for the customization of the loyalty program. For example,issuers or merchants may sponsor the loyalty program to provide rewards;and the portal (143) and/or the transaction handler (103) stores theloyalty currency in the data warehouse (149). Further details andexamples of one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/177,530, filed Jul. 22, 2008, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2009/0030793, and entitled “Multi-Vender Multi-Loyalty CurrencyProgram,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

In one embodiment, an incentive program is created on the portal (143)of the transaction handler (103). The portal (143) collects offers froma plurality of merchants and stores the offers in the data warehouse(149). The offers may have associated criteria for their distributions.The portal (143) and/or the transaction handler (103) may recommendoffers based on the transaction data (109). In one embodiment, thetransaction handler (103) automatically applies the benefits of theoffers during the processing of the transactions when the transactionssatisfy the conditions associated with the offers. In one embodiment,the transaction handler (103) communicates with transaction terminals(105) to set up, customize, and/or update offers based on market focus,product categories, service categories, targeted consumer demographics,etc. Further details and examples of one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/413,097, filed Mar. 27, 2009, assignedU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0049620, and entitled “Merchant DeviceSupport of an Integrated Offer Network,” the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured toprovide offers from merchants to the user (101) via the payment system,making accessing and redeeming the offers convenient for the user (101).The offers may be triggered by and/or tailored to a previoustransaction, and may be valid only for a limited period of time startingfrom the date of the previous transaction. If the transaction handler(103) determines that a subsequent transaction processed by thetransaction handler (103) meets the conditions for the redemption of anoffer, the transaction handler (103) may credit the consumer account(146) for the redemption of the offer and/or provide a notificationmessage to the user (101). Further details and examples of oneembodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/566,350,filed Sep. 24, 2009, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0114686, andentitled “Real-Time Statement Credits and Notifications,” the disclosureof which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Details on loyalty programs in one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/896,632, filed Oct. 1, 2010, assignedU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2011/0087530, and entitled “Systems and Methodsto Provide Loyalty Programs,” the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

SKU

In one embodiment, merchants generate stock-keeping unit (SKU) or otherspecific information that identifies the particular goods and servicespurchased by the user (101) or customer. The SKU information may beprovided to the operator of the transaction handler (103) that processedthe purchases. The operator of the transaction handler (103) may storethe SKU information as part of transaction data (109), and reflect theSKU information for a particular transaction in a transaction profile(127 or 131) associated with the person involved in the transaction.

When a user (101) shops at a traditional retail store or browses awebsite of an online merchant, an SKU-level profile associatedspecifically with the user (101) may be provided to select anadvertisement appropriately targeted to the user (101) (e.g., via mobilephones, POS terminals, web browsers, etc.). The SKU-level profile forthe user (101) may include an identification of the goods and serviceshistorically purchased by the user (101). In addition, the SKU-levelprofile for the user (101) may identify goods and services that the user(101) may purchase in the future. The identification may be based onhistorical purchases reflected in SKU-level profiles of otherindividuals or groups that are determined to be similar to the user(101). Accordingly, the return on investment for advertisers andmerchants can be greatly improved.

Details on SKU-level profile in one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/899,144, filed Oct. 6, 2010, assignedU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2011/0093335, and entitled “Systems and Methodsfor Advertising Services Based on an SKU-Level Profile,” the disclosureof which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured tocooperate with the media controller (115) to facilitate real-timeinteraction with the user (101) when the payment of the user (101) isbeing processed by the transaction handler (103). The real-timeinteraction provides the opportunity to impact the user experienceduring the purchase (e.g., at the time of card swipe), throughdelivering messages in real-time to a point of interaction (107), suchas a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a portable computer,etc. The real-time message can be delivered via short message service(SMS), email, instant messaging, or other communications protocols.

In one embodiment, the real-time message is provided without requiringmodifications to existing systems used by the merchants and/or issuers.

FIG. 9 shows a system to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 9, the transaction handler (103) (or a separatecomputing system coupled with the transaction handler (103)) is todetect the occurrence of certain transactions of interest during theprocessing of the authorization requests received from the transactionterminal (105); a message broker (201) is to identify a relevant messagefor the user (101) associated with the corresponding authorizationrequest; and the media controller (115) is to provide the message to theuser (101) at the point of interaction (107) via a communication channelseparate from the channel used by the transaction handler (103) torespond to the corresponding authorization request submitted from thetransaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, the media controller (115) is to provide the messageto the point of interaction (107) in parallel with the transactionhandler (103) providing the response to the authorization request.

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) receives the messagefrom the media controller (115) in real-time with the transactionhandler (103) processing the authorization request. In one embodiment,the message is to arrive at the point of interaction (107) in thecontext of the response provided from the transaction handler (103) tothe transaction terminal (105). For example, the message is to arrive atthe point of interaction (107) substantially at the same time as theresponse to the authorization request arrives at the transactionterminal (105), or with a delay not long enough to cause the user (101)to have the impression that the message is in response to an actionother than the payment transaction. For example, the message is toarrive at the point of interaction (107) prior to the user (101)completing the transaction and leaving the transaction terminal (105),or prior to the user (101) leaving the retail location of the merchantoperating the transaction terminal (105).

In FIG. 9, the system includes a portal (143) to provide services tomerchants and/or the user (101).

For example, in one embodiment, the portal (143) allows the user (101)to register the communication reference (205) in association with theaccount data (111), such as the account information (142) of theconsumer account (146); and the media controller (115) is to use thecommunication reference (205) to deliver the message to the point ofinteraction (107). Examples of the communication reference (205) includea mobile phone number, an email address, a user identifier of an instantmessaging system, an IP address, etc.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) allows merchants and/or otherparties to define rules (203) to provide offers (186) as real-timeresponses to authorization requests; and based on the offer rules (203),the message broker (201) is to generate, or instruct the mediacontroller (115) to generate, the real-time message to provide theoffers (186) to the user (101). For example, the offer (186) may includea discount, incentive, reward, rebate, gift, or other benefit, which canbe redeemed upon the satisfaction of certain conditions required by theoffer rules (203). In one embodiment, based on the offer rules (203) themessage broker (201) configures a message by selecting the appropriatemessage template from (an) existing message(s) template(s), and insertsany relevant data (e.g., the communication reference (205)) into theselected template, then passes the configured message to the mediacontroller (115), which delivers the message to the point of interaction(107). In one embodiment, the message broker (201) (or a subsystem) isused to manage message templates along with the rules for selecting theappropriate message template from among several potential choices.

In one embodiment, the offer rules (203) include offer details,targeting rules, advertisement campaign details, profile mapping,creative mapping, qualification rules, award/notify/fulfillment rules,approvals, etc. Creative elements for offers include text, images,channels, approvals, etc.

In one embodiment, when the offer rules (203) are activated by themerchant or advertiser via the portal (143), the message broker (201) isto generate trigger records (207) for the transaction handler (103). Thetransaction handler (103) is to monitor the incoming authorizationrequests to identify requests that satisfy the conditions specified inthe trigger records (207) during the process of the authorizationrequests, and to provide the information about the identified requeststo the message broker (201) for the transmission of an appropriatereal-time message in accordance with the offer rules (203).

In one embodiment, the generation of the trigger records (207) for thetransaction handler (103) is in real-time with the merchant oradvertiser activating the offer rules (203). Thus, the offer rules (203)can be activated and used for the detection of the new authorizationrequests in real-time, while the transaction handler (103) continues toprocess the incoming authorization requests.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides information about thespending behaviors reflected in the transaction data (109) to assist themerchants or advertisers to target offers or advertisements. Forexample, in one embodiment, the portal (143) allows merchants to targetthe offers (186) based on transaction profiles (127). For example, theoffer rules (203) are partially based on the values in a transactionprofile (127), such as an aggregated spending profile (341). In oneembodiment, the offer rules (203) are partially based on the informationabout the last purchase of the user (101) from the merchant operatingthe transaction terminal (105) (or another merchant), and/or theinformation about the location of the user (101), such as the locationdetermined based on the location of the transaction terminal (105)and/or the location of the merchant operating the transaction terminal(105).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides transaction basedstatistics, such as merchant benchmarking statistics, industry/marketsegmentation, etc., to assist merchants and advertisers to identifycustomers.

Thus, the real-time messages can be used to influence customer behaviorswhile the customers are in the purchase mode.

In one embodiment, the benefit of the offers (186) can be redeemed viathe transaction handler (103). The redemption of the offer (186) may ormay not require the purchase details (e.g., SKU level purchase details).Details in one embodiment about redeeming offers (186) via thetransaction handler (103) are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/113,710, filed May 23, 2011 and entitled “Systems and Methods forRedemption of Offers,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

In one embodiment, when the authorization request for a purchaseindicates that the purchase qualifies the offer (186) for redemption ifthe purchase corresponding to the authorization request is completed,the message broker (201) is to construct a message and use the mediacontroller (115) to deliver the message in real-time with the processingof the authorization request to the point of interaction (107). Themessage informs the user (101) that when the purchase is completed, thetransaction handler (103) and/or the issuer processor (145) is toprovide the benefit of the offer (186) to the user (101) via statementcredit or some other settlement value, for example points in aregistered loyalty program, or credit at the point of sale using adigital coupon delivered to the purchaser via mobile phone.

In one embodiment, the settlement of the payment transactioncorresponding to the authorization request does not occur in real-timewith the processing of the authorization request. For example, themerchant may submit the complete purchases for settlement at the end ofthe day, or in accordance with a predetermined schedule. The settlementmay occur one or more days after the processing of the authorizationrequest.

In one embodiment, when transactions are settled, the settledtransactions are matched to the authorization requests to identifyoffers (186) that are redeemable in view of the settlement. When theoffer (186) is confirmed to be redeemable based on a record ofsuccessful settlement, the message broker (201) is to use the mediacontroller (115) to provide a message to the point of interaction (107)of the user (101), such as the mobile phone of the user (101). In oneembodiment, the message is to inform the user (101) of the benefit to beprovided as statement credits and/or to provide additional offers. Inone embodiment, the message to confirm the statement credits istransmitted in real-time with the completion of the transactionsettlement.

In one embodiment, the message broker (201) is to determine the identityof the merchant based on the information included in the authorizationrequest transmitted from the transaction terminal (105) to thetransaction handler (103). In one embodiment, the identity of themerchant is normalized to allow the application of the offer rules (203)that are merchant specific.

FIG. 10 shows a method to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 10, a computing apparatus is to generate (211) atrigger record (207) for a transaction handler (103) to identify anauthorization request that satisfies the conditions specified in thetrigger record (207), receive (213) from the transaction handler (103)information about the authorization request in real-time with thetransaction handler (103) providing a response to the authorizationrequest to a transaction terminal (105), identify (215) a communicationreference (205) of a user (101) associated with the authorizationrequest, determine (217) a message for the user (101) responsive to theauthorization request, and provide (219) the message to the user (101)at a point of interaction (107) via the communication reference (205),in parallel with the response from the transaction handler (103) to thetransaction terminal (105).

Details on real-time messages in one embodiment are provided in U.S.Pat. No. 8,359,274, issued Jan. 22, 2013 and entitled “Systems andMethods to Provide Messages in Real-Time with Transaction Processing,”the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Merchant Aggregator

In one embodiment, real-time information about transactions iscommunicated to a remote computing device, such as a merchantaggregator, which has a plurality of merchants as clients. The computingdevice is connected to the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103)a communication network (e.g., Internet, a wide area network, or adedicate network) to receive the real-time information and provideservices to the merchants and their customers.

In one embodiment, the remote computing device, such as the merchantaggregator, is configured to provide offers (186) to customers (e.g.,user (101)) on behalf of the merchants, service loyalty programs onbehalf of the merchants, and/or provide rewards to customers (e.g., user(101)) for their interaction with the merchants, etc. The real-timeinformation about the transactions between the merchants and thecustomers allows the remote computing device to provide new services andimprove existing services.

In one embodiment, the computing device remotely connected to the portal(143), such as a merchant aggregator, is configured to enroll merchantsand/or customers (e.g., user (101)) to provide services based on thereal-time information about transactions between the merchants and thecustomers (e.g., user (101)). However, the identifiers used by theportal (143) to identify the enrolled merchants are generally differentfrom merchant identifies used by the transaction handler (103) inprocessing transactions initiated using the transaction terminals (e.g.,105) of the merchants. Thus, the identifiers used by the portal (143) toidentify the enrolled merchants may not be sufficient to identify thetransactions between the enrolled merchants and the enrolled customers.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103) isconfigured to match the identities of the merchants as known to theremote computing device, such as the merchant aggregator, with theidentities of the merchants as known to the transaction handler (103),to facilitate the monitoring of transactions of the merchants and togenerate the real-time information about the transactions between therespective merchants and enrolled customers (e.g., user (101)).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to link a merchantidentifier of a merchant as known to the remote computing device to amerchant identifier of the merchant as known to the transaction handler(103) via a transaction made using a transaction terminal (105) of themerchant. Information about the transaction is communicated between theportal (143) and the remote computing device, in association with themerchant identifier of the merchant as known to the remote computingdevice, to identify the transaction from the transactions processed thetransaction handler (103) and thus link the merchant identifier of themerchant as known to the remote computing device, to the merchantidentifier used in the identified transaction.

Alternatively or in combination, the portal (143) is configured to linkthe merchant identifier of the merchant as known to the remote computingdevice to the merchant identifier of the merchant as known to thetransaction handler (103) based at least in part on marching attributesof the merchant, such as name, address, business category, etc.

For example, when a merchant enrolls or registers with the remotecomputing device to receive the services of the remote computing device,the remote computing device is configured to collect information aboutthe merchant, such as the business name of the merchant, the streetaddress of the merchant, the business category of the merchant, etc.Such information about the merchant can be matched with the respectivemerchant information in the data warehouse stored for the merchants asknown to the transaction handler (103). Different data fields, such asname, address, business field, may provide partial match for a givenmerchant identifier of the merchant as known to the remote computingdevice; and a rule engine is configured in one embodiment to rank thedegree of match and select one or more top ranked candidate merchantidentifiers, as used in transactions processed by the transactionhandler (103).

In one embodiment, a transaction is initiated on a transaction terminal(105) of a merchant as part of the process to register or enroll themerchant for the services of the remote computing device. Thetransaction is identified as part of information about the merchant, inassociation with the merchant identifier of the merchant as known to theremote computing device. The merchant identifier used in the transactionis thus linked to the merchant identifier of the merchant as known tothe remote computing device. Thus, transactions of the merchant can bemonitored using the merchant identifier used in the transaction formedas part of the process to register or enroll the merchant.

In one embodiment, the transaction formed as part of the process toregister or enroll the merchant is performed in a predetermined account.The information about the transaction is provided to the portal (143) toallow the portal (143) to identify a transaction record for thetransaction, based on attributes such as the date and/or time of thetransaction, the transaction amount, an authorization code for thetransaction, and a message (e.g., a pseudo-promotional code) transmittedto the transaction handler (103) in an authorization request for thetransaction, etc. The portal (143) is configured to identify thetransaction record (e.g., 301) of the transaction based on matching theattributes as identified in the information transmitted from the remotecomputing device to the portal (143).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to communicate withthe remote computing device to determine one or more parameters of thetransaction performed on the transaction terminal (105) of a merchant toenroll or register the merchant. Examples of the parameters that can beconfigured to uniquely identify merchants to be enrolled includetransaction amounts, pseudo-promotional code, etc. After one or moreparameters are determined to uniquely identify the merchant among a setof merchants currently in the process of being enrolled or registered,the transaction terminal (105) is used to initiate the transactionaccording to the one or more parameters; and the transaction handler(103) is configured to monitor transactions being processed to detectthe transaction initiate the transaction according to the one or moreparameters. In response to the detection of authorization requestinitiated on the transaction terminal (105) of the merchant for thetransaction made according to the one or more parameters, the merchantidentifier used in the authorization request is extracted and linked tothe merchant as registered and/or enrolled.

In one embodiment, enrollment communication between the portal (143) andthe remote computing device includes not only the identificationinformation about the merchant, but also the identification informationof the transaction terminal (105) used to initiate the transactiondesigned to register the merchant and/or the transaction terminal (105).In one embodiment, information about the transaction terminal (105)includes an identifier of the transaction terminal (105) (e.g., a serialnumber), a location of the transaction terminal (105) (e.g., a streetaddress of a retail store in which the transaction terminal (105) isdeployed, a GPS position of the transaction terminal (105), adescription of the location of the transaction terminal (105) within aretail store in which a plurality of transaction terminals (e.g., 105)of the merchant are located).

In one embodiment, multiple transactions are performed to individuallyidentify the transaction terminals of the merchant. Thus, thetransaction handler (103) can monitor the transactions made usingspecific transaction terminals of the merchant and/or provideinformation about the transaction terminals on which the monitoredtransactions are initiated.

In one embodiment, when an authorization request for a transaction madeusing the one or more parameters assigned to uniquely identify themerchant and/or the transaction terminal (105) of the merchant isdetected, the transaction handler (103) is configured to communicatewith the portal (143) to provide a response to indicate the detection ofthe transaction. For example, in one embodiment, the transaction handler(103) is configured to provide an indication via the authorizationresponse to indicate the recognition of the merchant and/or thetransaction terminal (105). For example, in one embodiment, the portal(143) is configured to provide a message to the remote computing deviceto indicate the successful detection of transaction associated with themerchant and/or the transaction terminal (105) and completion of theregistration or enrollment process.

FIG. 11 shows a system configured to communicate via a merchantaggregator according to one embodiment. In FIG. 11, the merchantaggregator (221) is configured to communicate with merchants (227) toenroll the merchants (227) for the services of the system.

In one embodiment, when the merchant aggregator (221) enrolls a newmerchant, the merchant aggregator provides merchant information (225) tothe portal (143) of the transaction handler (103) to request the portal(143) and/or the transaction handler (103) to monitor the transactionsof the respective merchant (227).

In one embodiment, the merchant information (225) used by the merchantaggregator (221) to identify the merchant (227) may include the businessdata (e.g., corporation data, corporation name, consumer-facing name,“doing business as” names, names of affiliates and/or subsidiaries),addresses and store locations, etc. of the merchant (227). In oneembodiment, the merchant information (225) further includes informationabout the acquirer representing the merchant, merchant category, and/orother relevant information that is helpful in identifying the merchantin the transaction processing network having the transaction handler(103) interconnecting acquirer processors (e.g., 147) operated byacquirers representing respective merchants and issuer processors (e.g.,145) operated by issuers representing respective users (101) of consumeraccounts (146).

For example, in one embodiment, the merchant aggregator (221) providesthe merchant information (225) via a spreadsheet identifying a list ofmerchants (227). In the spreadsheet, each merchant (227) is identifiedvia the corporate name of the merchant (227) and the consumer-facingname of the merchant. For less well known merchants (e.g., smallbusinesses), the spreadsheet further identifies the name of theacquiring bank that represents the merchant (227) in processingtransactions to be processed via the transaction handler (103). In oneembodiment, the spreadsheet further includes the desired starting dateof monitoring the transactions of the merchants (227) identified in thespreadsheet and the expected ending date of monitoring the transactionsof the merchant (227) for the merchant aggregator (221).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to provide a userinterface that allows the merchant aggregator (221) to specify data forthe creation of the trigger records (207) associated with an offercampaign. For example, the user interface in one embodiment allows themerchant aggregator (221) to create an offer campaign associated withone of the merchants (227) identified in the spreadsheet provided toidentify the merchants (227). To support the offer campaign, the userinterface is configured to allow the merchant aggregator (221) tospecify rules to monitor the transactions of the respect merchant (227).For example, the rules may identify a date to start testing of themonitoring of the transactions of the merchant (227), a date to send themonitoring of the transactions of the merchant (227) for the purpose ofthe offer campaign, a request for a notification of transactionsprovided in real time as the processing of the authorization requests ofthe respective transactions of the merchant (227), and/or a request fora notification of transactions provided in real time as the processingof the settlement requests of the respective transactions of themerchant (227). In one embodiment, the user interface further allows themerchant aggregator (221) to specify other requirements to selecttransactions to be monitored, such as requirements based on transactionamount, transaction time, characteristics of the user (101) purchasingfrom the merchant (227), etc. In one embodiment, the user interfacefurther allows the merchant aggregator (221) to specify messages to betransmitted, in a way as illustrated in FIG. 9, to the respective user(101) transacting with the merchant (227), in response to thetransactions detected according to the offer rules.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to correctly identifytransactions associated with the enrolled merchant (227) based on themerchant information (225), and calculate the location of thetransactions to enable location based services associated with the offer(186) of the merchant (227).

In one embodiment, based on the merchant information (225), the portal(143) is configured to identify one or more merchant IDs (305) that areconfigured to be used in authorization requests for transactions of themerchant (227) identified by the merchant information (225). Theidentified merchant ID (305) is used to generate the trigger records(207) for monitoring the transactions of the merchant (227) identifiedby the merchant information (225) provided by the merchant aggregator(221).

In one embodiment, the account holders (e.g., user (101)) are requiredto enroll with the system to provide the consent for the mediacontroller (115) to send the transaction information of the accountholders (e.g., user (101)) to the merchant aggregator (221), and for themedia controller (115) and/or the merchant aggregator (221) to sendmessages to the point of interaction (107) of the user (101) based onthe transaction information.

In FIG. 11, after user enrollment, the user (101) of the consumeraccount (146) is identified to be associated with a user ID (223) usedby the merchant aggregator (221) to identify the user (101). The user(101) may further provide the communication reference (205) to themerchant aggregator (221) to receive offers (186), rewards,notifications, alerts, etc. The transaction handler (103) is configuredto use the trigger records (207) containing the account number (302) ofthe user (101) to detect the transactions of the user (101) (e.g., thetransactions between the user (101) between one or more the enrolledmerchants (e.g., 227)).

To associate the account number (302) with the user ID (223) in oneembodiment, the account number (302) of the consumer account (146) ofthe user (101) is identified to the portal (143) during the userenrollment and stored in the data warehouse (149) in association withthe user ID (223).

For example, during the user enrollment process, the point ofinteraction (107) (e.g., a web browser, a mobile phone) of the user(101) interacting with the merchant aggregator (221) is redirected inone embodiment from the merchant aggregator (221) to the portal (143)with a reference to the user ID (223); and in response, the portal (143)provides a user interface to the point of interaction (107) of the user(101) to specify the account number (302). After the account number(302) specified by the user (101) is validated and/or authenticated(e.g., via security code, person identification number, securityquestions, security devices, etc.), the account number (302) isassociated with the user ID (223) in the data warehouse (149) of thetransaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, more than one account number (302) of the consumeraccounts (146) of the user (101) can be associated with the single userID (223) used by the merchant aggregator (221) to represent the user(101).

In one embodiment, the user ID (223) is assigned to the user (101) bythe merchant aggregator (221) during the enrollment process.Alternatively, the portal (143) may generate and assign the user ID(223) for the user during the enrollment process and provide the user ID(223) to the merchant aggregator (221) to complete the enrollment of theuser (101).

In one embodiment, during the enrollment process, the user (101)provides the account number (302) to the merchant aggregator (221),which indicates the association between the account number (302) and theuser ID (223) to the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103); andthe user ID (223) is subsequently used to identify the user (101) ismessages to the merchant aggregator (221). Alternatively, the accountnumber (302) may be used directly to identify the user (101), when thereal-time message from the media controller (115) to the merchantaggregator (221) is transmitted over a secure communication channel.

In one embodiment, the trigger record (207) is generated based at leastin part on the account number (302) and the merchant ID (305) to monitorthe transactions between the user (101) and the merchant (227). When theauthorization request from the transaction terminal (105) of themerchant (227) identifies the account number (302) and the merchant ID(305), as required by the trigger record (207) (and satisfies otherrequirements of the trigger record (207), such as requirements relatedto the date and time of the transaction, the amount of the transaction,etc.), the transaction handler (103) causes the message broker (201) togenerate a message and transmit the message to the merchant aggregator(221), in real time with the processing of the transaction, to informthe merchant aggregator (221) of the transaction.

In one embodiment, the data warehouse (149) stores the merchant location(229) for the merchant ID (305) associated with the transaction terminal(105).

In one embodiment, in response to the authorization request from thetransaction terminal (105), the merchant location (229) of thetransaction terminal (105) is determined and included in the real-timemessage generated by the message broker (201) and provided to themerchant aggregator (221) in a generic, machine-readable format (e.g.,XML). Based on the information provided in the real-time message, themerchant aggregator (221) may use the communication reference (205) tocommunicate offers (186), rewards, messages, notifications, alerts, etc.to the point of interaction (107) of the user (101), such as viamessages to a mobile phone identified by the communication reference(205) and/or a mobile application running on the mobile phone of theuser (101).

In FIG. 11, the merchant aggregator (221) is configured to communicatewith the point of interaction (107) of the user (101) in response to thereal-time message from the media controller (115). Alternatively or incombination, the data warehouse (149) may store the communicationreference (205), which is used by the media controller (115) to provideone or more separate real-time messages related to location-based offers(186) to the point of interaction (107) of the user (101) without goingthrough the merchant aggregator (221).

In one embodiment, a merchant (227) may have a number of subsidiarieswith different names and locations. In response to the merchantinformation (225), merchant data related to merchant accounts (148) aresearched to identify a set of possible matches to the merchantinformation (225), which may be further communicated to the merchantaggregator (221) for confirmation. For example, in one embodiment, eachmatched merchant ID is augmented with the respective address of thetransaction terminals operated by the respective merchant entity; andthe merchant (227) may further confirm the enrollment of the respectivemerchant entity. In one embodiment, the names and addresses of themerchant information (225) are matched with the names and addresses ofthe merchant data for merchant accounts (148) to identify the merchantentity that is enrolled via the merchant information (225).

In one embodiment, a plurality of merchant IDs (305) may match themerchant information (225) specified by the merchant aggregator (221);and one or more merchant locations corresponding to the locations of thetransaction terminals (105) may associate with a merchant ID (305) inthe data warehouse (149). When the trigger record (207) matches atransaction, the merchant location (229) corresponding to thetransaction terminal (105) from which the authorization request isreceived is used for the location-based service provided by the merchantaggregator (221) and/or the message broker (201).

FIG. 12 shows a system to enroll a merchant according to one embodiment.In FIG. 12, a transaction made using a predetermined account number(302) is used to correlate the merchant information (225) (e.g., amerchant identifier (235) of the merchant as known to the merchantaggregator (221)) with the merchant ID (305) used in the transactionmessages processed by the transaction handler (103).

In FIG. 12, when the merchant (227) enrolls with the merchant aggregator(221), the merchant enrollment data (231), including the merchantinformation (225), is generated to identify the names and locations ofthe enrolled merchant (227). The merchant aggregator (221) uses themerchant identifier (235) to represent the enrolled merchant (227).

In one embodiment, to correlate the merchant identifier (235) with amerchant ID (305) associated with the merchant account (148), thetransaction terminal (105) at the enrolled location of the merchant(227) is used to initiate a transaction using a predetermined accountnumber (302). After the transaction is initiated, the acquirer processor(147) connected to the transaction terminal (105) provides theauthorization request to the transaction handler (103), which stores thetransaction record (237) that includes the predetermined account number(302), the merchant ID (305), the date (303) of the transaction, theamount (304) of the transaction, the authorization code provided by thetransaction handler (103), through the acquirer processor (147), to thetransaction terminal (105) for the transaction, etc.

In one embodiment, the merchant aggregator (221) stores a separatetransaction record (233) including certain information about thetransaction as identified by the enrolling merchant (227), such as thepredetermined account number (302), the date (303) (or the time periodin which transaction is performed), the amount (304), and theauthorization code received by the transaction terminal (105), throughthe acquirer processor (147) and the transaction handler (103), for thetransaction, etc.

In FIG. 12, the portal (143) is configured to match the transactionrecords (233 and 237) to link the merchant ID (305) to the merchantidentifier (235), using one or more sets of corresponding fields of thetransaction records (233 and 237).

For example, during the enrollment period, the portal (143) isconfigured to retrieve transactions records (237) for the predeterminedaccount number (302) from the data warehouse (149); and the merchantaggregator (221) is configured to provide its transaction record (233)with the merchant identifier (235) to the portal (143). The portal (143)is configured to match the transaction records (233 and 237) based onthe account number (302), the transaction date (303), and/or thetransaction amount (304). When a match is detected, the merchant ID(305) (and the identifier of the transaction terminal (105)) from thetransaction record (237) generated by the transaction handler (103) islinked to the merchant identifier (235) associated with the transactionrecord (233) stored by the merchant aggregator (221).

Using the system of FIG. 12, the merchant (227) can selectively enrollcertain transaction terminals (105) operated under certain names and/orat certain locations. Thus, the merchant (227) may enroll a portion ofthe transaction terminals (105) under the control of the merchant (227)but not another portion of the transaction terminals (105) under thecontrol of the merchant (227). Different transaction terminals e.g.,105) of a merchant may have different merchant ID (305) and/ortransaction terminal IDs. Through transactions initiated using thedifferent transaction terminals of the merchant, the merchant identifier(235) representing an enrolled merchant is linked to the differentmerchant ID (305) and/or transaction terminal IDs as used inauthorization request for the transactions made using respectivetransaction terminals of the corresponding enrolled merchant.

In one embodiment, the transaction record (233) further includes thelocation information of the transaction terminal (105), which can beused for location based services. For example, in reporting thetransaction initiated via using the predetermined account number (302)at the transaction terminal (105), the merchant (227) may specify thelocation of the transaction terminal (105) via a mobile device, a mobileapplication, a map application, or a street address. Thus, the locationof the transaction terminal (105) is associated with the merchant ID(305) and/or the transaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, the data warehouse (149) stores location informationof transaction terminal (105) (e.g., as reported by the acquirerprocessor (147)) and provides the location information to the merchantaggregator (221) after the merchant ID (305) is linked to the merchantidentifier (235) via the transaction record (237) for the transactioninitiated on the transaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, during the enrollment process, the merchantaggregator (221) instructs the merchant (227) to perform the transactionaccording to the data stored in the transaction record (223) andprovides the transaction record (233) to the portal (143). In response,the portal (143) generates a trigger record (207) to detect thetransaction that is subsequently initiated by the merchant at thetransaction terminal (105). In one embodiment, the trigger record (207)is configured to cause the portal (143) to link the merchant ID (305)from the transaction record (237) of the identified transaction with themerchant identifier (235) associated with the transaction record (233)used to generate the trigger record (207).

In one embodiment, during the enrollment process, the merchantaggregator (221) is configured to request the portal (143) to generate aset of transaction parameters to temporarily identify a transactionterminal (105) of a merchant (227). The portal (143) is configured totransmit the parameters to the merchant aggregator as part of thetransaction record (233) for initiation of the transaction. Examples ofthe parameters include the transaction amount, a pseudo-promotional codeto be transmitted in an authorization request initiated in thetransaction terminal (105). After the parameters are transmitted to themerchant aggregator (221), the transaction handler (103) is configuredto monitor transactions to detect the transaction made, in thepredetermined account, using the parameters provided to the merchantaggregator (221). Thus, as soon as the authorization request for theexpected transaction reaches the transaction handler (103), the portal(143) can identify the merchant ID (305) and/or the transaction terminalID of the respective transaction terminal (105) from the receivedauthorization request, for association with the transaction terminal(105) of the merchant (227) to be enrolled.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured tomonitor and detect a plurality of transactions initiated to enroll aplurality of different merchants and/or different transaction terminalsof the enrolled merchants. To separately identify the merchants and/orthe transaction terminals, the portal (143) and/or the merchantaggregator (221) are configured to select the transaction parameters(e.g., transaction amounts) as temporary unique identifiers of themerchants and/or transaction terminals. A data warehouse (e.g., 149) isconfigured to store data associating the temporary unique identifierswith the merchants and/or transaction terminals. After a transaction isperformed and detected, the temporary association between thecorresponding transaction parameters with the merchants and/ortransaction terminals can be removed and/or reused for theidentification of further merchants and/or transaction terminals.

In one embodiment, the transaction parameters configured as temporaryidentifiers of the enrolled merchants and/or transaction terminals areused to create trigger records to detect the subsequent authorizationrequests initiated from the corresponding transaction terminals of theenrolled merchants.

FIG. 13 shows a method to provide real-time notifications oftransactions according to one embodiment. In FIG. 13, a computingapparatus is configured to receive (241) merchant information (225)identifying merchants (227) enrolled with a merchant aggregator (221),determine (243) merchant IDs (305) configured to be used in transactionauthorization requests from the respective merchants (227), identify(245) account numbers (302) associated with user IDs (223) used by themerchant aggregator (221) to identify respective account users (101),monitor (247) transactions processed by the transactions handler (103)to detect transactions between merchants (227) as identified by themerchant IDs (305) and the users (101) as identified by the accountnumbers (302), and transmit (249) to the merchant aggregator (221)messages reporting the detected transactions.

Some details about enrolling a merchant for communication via a merchantaggregator can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/624,778,filed Sep. 21, 2012, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2013/0073464, andentitled “Systems and Methods to Communicate via a Merchant Aggregator”,the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Variations

In one embodiment, at least some of the profile generator (121),correlator (117), profile selector (129), and advertisement selector(133) are controlled by the entity that operates the transaction handler(103). In another embodiment, at least some of the profile generator(121), correlator (117), profile selector (129), and advertisementselector (133) are not controlled by the entity that operates thetransaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, the products and/or services purchased by the user(101) are also identified by the information transmitted from themerchants or service providers. Thus, the transaction data (109) mayinclude identification of the individual products and/or services, whichallows the profile generator (121) to generate transaction profiles(127) with fine granularity or resolution. In one embodiment, thegranularity or resolution may be at a level of distinct products andservices that can be purchased (e.g., stock-keeping unit (SKU) level),or category or type of products or services, or vendor of products orservices, etc.

In one embodiment, the entity operating the transaction handler (103)provides the intelligence information in real time as the request forthe intelligence information occurs. In other embodiments, the entityoperating the transaction handler (103) may provide the intelligenceinformation in batch mode. The intelligence information can be deliveredvia online communications (e.g., via an application programminginterface (API) on a website, or other information server), or viaphysical transportation of a computer readable media that stores thedata representing the intelligence information.

In one embodiment, the intelligence information is communicated tovarious entities in the system in a way similar to, and/or in parallelwith the information flow in the transaction system to move money. Thetransaction handler (103) routes the information in the same way itroutes the currency involved in the transactions.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides a user interface to allowthe user (101) to select items offered on different merchant websitesand store the selected items in a wish list for comparison, reviewing,purchasing, tracking, etc. The information collected via the wish listcan be used to improve the transaction profiles (127) and deriveintelligence on the needs of the user (101); and targeted advertisementscan be delivered to the user (101) via the wish list user interfaceprovided by the portal (143). Examples of user interface systems tomanage wish lists are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/683,802, filed Jan. 7, 2010, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2010/0174623, and entitled “System and Method for Managing Items ofInterest Selected from Online Merchants,” the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference.

Aggregated Spending Profile

In one embodiment, the characteristics of transaction patterns ofcustomers are profiled via clusters, factors, and/or categories ofpurchases. The transaction data (109) may include transaction records(301); and in one embodiment, an aggregated spending profile (341) isgenerated from the transaction records (301), in a way illustrated inFIG. 2, to summarize the spending behavior reflected in the transactionrecords (301).

In FIG. 2, each of the transaction records (301) is for a particulartransaction processed by the transaction handler (103). Each of thetransaction records (301) provides information about the particulartransaction, such as the account number (302) of the consumer account(146) used to pay for the purchase, the date (303) (and/or time) of thetransaction, the amount (304) of the transaction, the ID (305) of themerchant who receives the payment, the category (306) of the merchant,the channel (307) through which the purchase was made, etc. Examples ofchannels include online, offline in-store, via phone, etc. In oneembodiment, the transaction records (301) may further include a field toidentify a type of transaction, such as card-present, card-not-present,etc.

A “card-present” transaction typically involves physically presentingthe account identification device (141), such as a financial transactioncard, to the merchant (e.g., via swiping a credit card at a POS terminalof a merchant); and a “card-not-present” transaction typically involvespresenting the account information (142) of the consumer account (146)to the merchant to identify the consumer account (146) withoutphysically presenting the account identification device (141) to themerchant or the transaction terminal (105).

The transaction records (301) of one embodiment may further includedetails about the products and/or services involved in the purchase.

When there is voluminous data representing the transaction records(301), the spending patterns reflected in the transaction records (301)can be difficult to recognize by an ordinary person.

In FIG. 2, the voluminous transaction records (301) are summarized (335)into aggregated spending profiles (e.g., 341) to concisely present thestatistical spending characteristics reflected in the transactionrecords (301). The aggregated spending profile (341) uses values derivedfrom statistical analysis to present the statistical characteristics oftransaction records (301) of an entity in a way easy to understand by anordinary person.

In FIG. 2, the transaction records (301) are summarized (335) via factoranalysis (327) to condense the variables (e.g., 313, 315) and viacluster analysis (329) to segregate entities by spending patterns.

In FIG. 2, a set of variables (e.g., 311, 313, 315) are defined based onthe parameters recorded in the transaction records (301). The variables(e.g., 311, 313, and 315) are defined in a way to have meanings easilyunderstood by an ordinary person. For example, variables (311) measurethe aggregated spending in super categories; variables (313) measure thespending frequencies in various areas; and variables (315) measure thespending amounts in various areas. In one embodiment, each of the areasis identified by a merchant category (306) (e.g., as represented by amerchant category code (MCC), a North American Industry ClassificationSystem (NAICS) code, or a similarly standardized category code). Inother embodiments, an area may be identified by a product category, aSKU number, etc.

Examples of the spending frequency variables (313) and spending amountvariables (315) defined for various merchant categories (e.g., 306) inone embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/537,566, filed Aug. 7, 2009, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2010/0306029, and entitled “Cardholder Clusters,” and in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/777,173, filed May 10, 2010, assigned U.S. Pat.App. Pub. No. 2010/0306032, and entitled “Systems and Methods toSummarize Transaction Data,” the disclosures of which applications arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

In FIG. 2, the aggregation (317) includes the application of thedefinitions (309) for these variables (e.g., 311, 313, and 315) to thetransaction records (301) to generate the variable values (321). Thetransaction records (301) are aggregated to generate aggregatedmeasurements (e.g., variable values (321)) that are not specific to aparticular transaction, such as frequencies of purchases made withdifferent merchants or different groups of merchants, the amounts spentwith different merchants or different groups of merchants, and thenumber of unique purchases across different merchants or differentgroups of merchants, etc. The aggregation (317) can be performed for aparticular time period and for entities at various levels.

The transaction records (301) can be aggregated according to a buyingentity, or a selling entity. For example, the aggregation (317) can beperformed at account level, person level, family level, company level,neighborhood level, city level, region level, etc. to analyze thespending patterns across various areas (e.g., sellers, products orservices) for the respective aggregated buying entity. For example, thetransaction records (301) for a particular merchant having transactionswith multiple accounts can be aggregated for a merchant level analysis.For example, the transaction records (301) for a particular merchantgroup can be aggregated for a merchant group level analysis. Theaggregation (317) can be formed separately for different types oftransactions, such as transactions made online, offline, via phone,and/or “card-present” transactions vs. “card-not-present” transactions,which can be used to identify the spending pattern differences amongdifferent types of transactions.

In FIG. 2, the variable values (e.g., 323, 324, . . . , 325) associatedwith an entity ID (322) are considered the random samples of therespective variables (e.g., 311, 313, 315), sampled for the instance ofan entity represented by the entity ID (322). Statistical analyses(e.g., factor analysis (327) and cluster analysis (329)) are performedto identify the patterns and correlations in the random samples.

Once the cluster definitions (333) are obtained from the clusteranalysis (329), the identity of the cluster (e.g., cluster ID (343))that contains the entity ID (322) can be used to characterize spendingbehavior of the entity represented by the entity ID (322). The entitiesin the same cluster are considered to have similar spending behaviors.

In FIG. 2, the random variables (e.g., 313 and 315) as defined by thedefinitions (309) have certain degrees of correlation and are notindependent from each other. For example, merchants of differentmerchant categories (e.g., 306) may have overlapping business, or havecertain business relationships. For example, certain products and/orservices of certain merchants have cause and effect relationships. Forexample, certain products and/or services of certain merchants aremutually exclusive to a certain degree (e.g., a purchase from onemerchant may have a level of probability to exclude the user (101) frommaking a purchase from another merchant). Such relationships may becomplex and difficult to quantify by merely inspecting the categories.Further, such relationships may shift over time as the economy changes.

In FIG. 2, a factor analysis (327) is performed to reduce the redundancyand/or correlation among the variables (e.g., 313, 315). The factoranalysis (327) identifies the definitions (331) for factors, each ofwhich represents a combination of the variables (e.g., 313, 315). Afactor from the factor analysis (327) is a linear combination of aplurality of the aggregated measurements (e.g., variables (313, 315))determined for various areas (e.g., merchants or merchant categories,products or product categories). Once the relationship between thefactors and the aggregated measurements is determined via factoranalysis, the values for the factors can be determined from the linearcombinations of the aggregated measurements and be used in a transactionprofile (127 or 341) to provide information on the behavior of theentity represented by the entity ID (e.g., an account, an individual, afamily).

Once the factor definitions (331) are obtained from the factor analysis(327), the factor definitions (331) can be applied to the variablevalues (321) to determine factor values (344) for the aggregatedspending profile (341). Since redundancy and correlation are reduced inthe factors, the number of factors is typically much smaller than thenumber of the original variables (e.g., 313, 315). Thus, the factorvalues (344) represent the concise summary of the original variables(e.g., 313, 315).

For example, there may be thousands of variables on spending frequencyand amount for different merchant categories; and the factor analysis(327) can reduce the factor number to less than one hundred (and evenless than twenty). In one example, a twelve-factor solution is obtained,which allows the use of twelve factors to combine the thousands of theoriginal variables (313, 315); and thus, the spending behavior inthousands of merchant categories can be summarized via twelve factorvalues (344). In one embodiment, each factor is combination of at leastfour variables; and a typical variable has contributions to more thanone factor.

In FIG. 2, an aggregated spending profile (341) for an entityrepresented by an entity ID (e.g., 322) includes the cluster ID (343)and factor values (344) determined based on the cluster definitions(333) and the factor definitions (331). The aggregated spending profile(341) may further include other statistical parameters, such asdiversity index (342), channel distribution (345), category distribution(346), zip code (347), etc., as further discussed below.

In general, an aggregated spending profile (341) may include more orfewer fields than those illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, in oneembodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341) further includes anaggregated spending amount for a period of time (e.g., the past twelvemonths); in another embodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341)does not include the category distribution (346); and in a furtherembodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341) may include a set ofdistance measures to the centroids of the clusters.

FIG. 3 shows a method to generate an aggregated spending profileaccording to one embodiment. In FIG. 3, computation models areestablished (351) for variables (e.g., 311, 313, and 315). In oneembodiment, the variables are defined in a way to capture certainaspects of the spending statistics, such as frequency, amount, etc.

In FIG. 3, data from related accounts are combined (353);recurrent/installment transactions are combined (355); and account dataare selected (357) according to a set of criteria related to activity,consistency, diversity, etc.

In FIG. 3, the computation models (e.g., as represented by the variabledefinitions (309)) are applied (359) to the remaining account data(e.g., transaction records (301)) to obtain data samples for thevariables. The data points associated with the entities, other thanthose whose transactions fail to meet the minimum requirements foractivity, consistency, diversity, etc., are used in factor analysis(327) and cluster analysis (329).

In FIG. 3, the data samples (e.g., variable values (321)) are used toperform (361) factor analysis (327) to identify factor solutions (e.g.,factor definitions (331)). The factor solutions can be adjusted (363) toimprove similarity in factor values of different sets of transactiondata (109).

The data samples can also be used to perform (365) cluster analysis(329) to identify cluster solutions (e.g., cluster definitions (333)).The cluster solutions can be adjusted (367) to improve similarity incluster identifications based on different sets of transaction data(109). For example, cluster definitions (333) can be applied to thetransactions in the time period under analysis (e.g., the past twelvemonths) and be applied separately to the transactions in a prior timeperiod (e.g., the twelve months before the past twelve months) to obtaintwo sets of cluster identifications for various entities. The clusterdefinitions (333) can be adjusted to improve the correlation between thetwo set of cluster identifications.

Optionally, human understandable characteristics of the factors andclusters are identified (369) to name the factors and clusters. Forexample, when the spending behavior of a cluster appears to be thebehavior of an internet loyalist, the cluster can be named “internetloyalist” such that if a cardholder is found to be in the “internetloyalist” cluster, the spending preferences and patterns of thecardholder can be easily perceived.

In one embodiment, the factor analysis (327) and the cluster analysis(329) are performed periodically (e.g., once a year, or six months) toupdate the factor definitions (331) and the cluster definitions (333),which may change as the economy and the society change over time.

In FIG. 3, transaction data (109) are summarized (371) using the factorsolutions and cluster solutions to generate the aggregated spendingprofile (341). The aggregated spending profile (341) can be updated morefrequently than the factor solutions and cluster solutions, when the newtransaction data (109) becomes available. For example, the aggregatedspending profile (341) may be updated quarterly or monthly.

Details about aggregated spending profile (341) in one embodiment areprovided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/777,173, filed May 10,2010, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0306032, and entitled“Systems and Methods to Summarize Transaction Data,” the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, a set of profiles are generated from the transactiondata for a plurality of geographical regions, such as mutuallyexclusive, non-overlapping regions defined by postal codes. Transactionsof account holders residing in the regions are aggregated according tomerchant categories for the respective regions and subsequentlynormalized to obtain preference indicators that reveal the spendingpreferences of the account holders in the respective regions. Each ofthe profiles for respective regions is based on a plurality of differentaccount holders and/or households to avoid revealing private informationabout individual account holders or families. Further, the profiles areconstructed in a way to make it impossible to reverse calculate thetransaction amounts. Further details and examples about profilesconstructed for regions in one embodiment are provided in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/675,301, filed Nov. 13, 2012 and entitled“Systems and Methods to Summarize Transaction data,” the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Transaction Processing and Data

FIG. 4 shows a system to provide information and/or services based ontransaction data (109) according to one embodiment.

In FIG. 4, the transaction handler (103) is coupled between an issuerprocessor (145) and an acquirer processor (147) to facilitateauthorization and settlement of transactions between a consumer account(146) and a merchant account (148). The transaction handler (103)records the transactions in the data warehouse (149). The portal (143)is coupled to the data warehouse (149) to provide information based onthe transaction records (301), such as the transaction profiles (127),aggregated spending profile (341), offer redemption notification, etc.The portal (143) may be implemented as a web portal, a telephonegateway, a file/data server, etc.

In FIG. 4, the transaction terminal (105) initiates the transaction fora user (101) (e.g., a customer) for processing by a transaction handler(103). The transaction handler (103) processes the transaction andstores transaction data (109) about the transaction, in connection withaccount data (111), such as the account profile of an account of theuser (101). The account data (111) may further include data about theuser (101), collected from issuers or merchants, and/or other sources,such as social networks, credit bureaus, merchant provided information,address information, etc. In one embodiment, a transaction may beinitiated by a server (e.g., based on a stored schedule for recurrentpayments).

The accumulated transaction data (109) and the corresponding accountdata (111) are used to generate intelligence information about thepurchase behavior, pattern, preference, tendency, frequency, trend,amount and/or propensity of the users (e.g., 101), as individuals or asa member of a group. The intelligence information can then be used togenerate, identify and/or select targeted advertisements forpresentation to the user (101) on the point of interaction (107), duringa transaction, after a transaction, or when other opportunities arise.

In FIG. 4, the consumer account (146) is under the control of the issuerprocessor (145). The consumer account (146) may be owned by anindividual, or an organization such as a business, a school, etc. Theconsumer account (146) may be a credit account, a debit account, or astored value account. The issuer may provide the consumer (e.g., user(101)) an account identification device (141) to identify the consumeraccount (146) using the account information (142). The respectiveconsumer of the account (146) can be called an account holder or acardholder, even when the consumer is not physically issued a card, orthe account identification device (141), in one embodiment. The issuerprocessor (145) is to charge the consumer account (146) to pay forpurchases.

The account identification device (141) of one embodiment is a plasticcard having a magnetic strip storing account information (142)identifying the consumer account (146) and/or the issuer processor(145). Alternatively, the account identification device (141) is asmartcard having an integrated circuit chip storing at least the accountinformation (142). The account identification device (141) mayoptionally include a mobile phone having an integrated smartcard.

The account information (142) may be printed or embossed on the accountidentification device (141). The account information (142) may beprinted as a bar code to allow the transaction terminal (105) to readthe information via an optical scanner. The account information (142)may be stored in a memory of the account identification device (141) andconfigured to be read via wireless, contactless communications, such asnear field communications via magnetic field coupling, infraredcommunications, or radio frequency communications. Alternatively, thetransaction terminal (105) may require contact with the accountidentification device (141) to read the account information (142) (e.g.,by reading the magnetic strip of a card with a magnetic strip reader).

The transaction terminal (105) is configured to transmit anauthorization request message to the acquirer processor (147). Theauthorization request includes the account information (142), an amountof payment, and information about the merchant (e.g., an indication ofthe merchant account (148)). The acquirer processor (147) requests thetransaction handler (103) to process the authorization request, based onthe account information (142) received in the transaction terminal(105). The transaction handler (103) routes the authorization request tothe issuer processor (145) and may process and respond to theauthorization request when the issuer processor (145) is not available.The issuer processor (145) determines whether to authorize thetransaction based at least in part on a balance of the consumer account(146).

The transaction handler (103), the issuer processor (145), and theacquirer processor (147) may each include a subsystem to identify therisk in the transaction and may reject the transaction based on the riskassessment.

The account identification device (141) may include security features toprevent unauthorized uses of the consumer account (146), such as a logoto show the authenticity of the account identification device (141),encryption to protect the account information (142), etc.

The transaction terminal (105) of one embodiment is configured tointeract with the account identification device (141) to obtain theaccount information (142) that identifies the consumer account (146)and/or the issuer processor (145). The transaction terminal (105)communicates with the acquirer processor (147) that controls themerchant account (148) of a merchant. The transaction terminal (105) maycommunicate with the acquirer processor (147) via a data communicationconnection, such as a telephone connection, an Internet connection, etc.The acquirer processor (147) is to collect payments into the merchantaccount (148) on behalf of the merchant.

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is a POS terminal at atraditional, offline, “brick and mortar” retail store. In anotherembodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is an online server thatreceives account information (142) of the consumer account (146) fromthe user (101) through a web connection. In one embodiment, the user(101) may provide account information (142) through a telephone call,via verbal communications with a representative of the merchant; and therepresentative enters the account information (142) into the transactionterminal (105) to initiate the transaction.

In one embodiment, the account information (142) can be entered directlyinto the transaction terminal (105) to make payment from the consumeraccount (146), without having to physically present the accountidentification device (141). When a transaction is initiated withoutphysically presenting an account identification device (141), thetransaction is classified as a “card-not-present” (CNP) transaction.

In general, the issuer processor (145) may control more than oneconsumer account (146); the acquirer processor (147) may control morethan one merchant account (148); and the transaction handler (103) isconnected between a plurality of issuer processors (e.g., 145) and aplurality of acquirer processors (e.g., 147). An entity (e.g., bank) mayoperate both an issuer processor (145) and an acquirer processor (147).

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103), the issuer processor(145), the acquirer processor (147), the transaction terminal (105), theportal (143), and other devices and/or services accessing the portal(143) are connected via communications networks, such as local areanetworks, cellular telecommunications networks, wireless wide areanetworks, wireless local area networks, an intranet, and Internet.Dedicated communication channels may be used between the transactionhandler (103) and the issuer processor (145), between the transactionhandler (103) and the acquirer processor (147), and/or between theportal (143) and the transaction handler (103).

In FIG. 4, the transaction handler (103) uses the data warehouse (149)to store the records about the transactions, such as the transactionrecords (301) or transaction data (109).

Typically, the transaction handler (103) is implemented using a powerfulcomputer, or cluster of computers functioning as a unit, controlled byinstructions stored on a computer readable medium. The transactionhandler (103) is configured to support and deliver authorizationservices, exception file services, and clearing and settlement services.The transaction handler (103) has a subsystem to process authorizationrequests and another subsystem to perform clearing and settlementservices. The transaction handler (103) is configured to processdifferent types of transactions, such credit card transactions, debitcard transactions, prepaid card transactions, and other types ofcommercial transactions. The transaction handler (103) interconnects theissuer processors (e.g., 145) and the acquirer processor (e.g., 147) tofacilitate payment communications.

In FIG. 4, the transaction terminal (105) is configured to submit theauthorized transactions to the acquirer processor (147) for settlement.The amount for the settlement may be different from the amount specifiedin the authorization request. The transaction handler (103) is coupledbetween the issuer processor (145) and the acquirer processor (147) tofacilitate the clearing and settling of the transaction. Clearingincludes the exchange of financial information between the issuerprocessor (145) and the acquirer processor (147); and settlementincludes the exchange of funds.

In FIG. 4, the issuer processor (145) is configured to provide funds tomake payments on behalf of the consumer account (146). The acquirerprocessor (147) is to receive the funds on behalf of the merchantaccount (148). The issuer processor (145) and the acquirer processor(147) communicate with the transaction handler (103) to coordinate thetransfer of funds for the transaction. The funds can be transferredelectronically.

The transaction terminal (105) may submit a transaction directly forsettlement, without having to separately submit an authorizationrequest.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides a user interface to allowthe user (101) to organize the transactions in one or more consumeraccounts (146) of the user with one or more issuers. The user (101) mayorganize the transactions using information and/or categories identifiedin the transaction records (301), such as merchant category (306),transaction date (303), amount (304), etc. Examples and techniques inone embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/378,215, filed Mar. 16, 2006, assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2007/0055597, and entitled “Method and System for Manipulating PurchaseInformation,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides transaction basedstatistics, such as indicators for retail spending monitoring,indicators for merchant benchmarking, industry/market segmentation,indicators of spending patterns, etc. Further examples can be found inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/191,796, filed Aug. 14, 2008,assigned U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2009/0048884, and entitled “MerchantBenchmarking Tool,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/940,562, filedNov. 5, 2010, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/940,664, filedNov. 5, 2010, the disclosures of which applications are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

Transaction Terminal

FIG. 5 illustrates a transaction terminal according to one embodiment.The transaction terminal (105) illustrated in FIG. 5 can be used invarious systems discussed in connection with other figures of thepresent disclosure. In FIG. 5, the transaction terminal (105) isconfigured to interact with an account identification device (141) toobtain account information (142) about the consumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) includes a memory(167) coupled to the processor (151), which controls the operations of areader (163), an input device (153), an output device (165) and anetwork interface (161). The memory (167) may store instructions for theprocessor (151) and/or data, such as an identification that isassociated with the merchant account (148).

In one embodiment, the reader (163) includes a magnetic strip reader. Inanother embodiment, the reader (163) includes a contactless reader, suchas a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, a near fieldcommunications (NFC) device configured to read data via magnetic fieldcoupling (in accordance with ISO standard 14443/NFC), a Bluetoothtransceiver, a WiFi transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a laserscanner, etc.

In one embodiment, the input device (153) includes key buttons that canbe used to enter the account information (142) directly into thetransaction terminal (105) without the physical presence of the accountidentification device (141). The input device (153) can be configured toprovide further information to initiate a transaction, such as apersonal identification number (PIN), password, zip code, etc. that maybe used to access the account identification device (141), or incombination with the account information (142) obtained from the accountidentification device (141).

In one embodiment, the output device (165) may include a display, aspeaker, and/or a printer to present information, such as the result ofan authorization request, a receipt for the transaction, anadvertisement, etc.

In one embodiment, the network interface (161) is configured tocommunicate with the acquirer processor (147) via a telephoneconnection, an Internet connection, or a dedicated data communicationchannel.

In one embodiment, the instructions stored in the memory (167) areconfigured at least to cause the transaction terminal (105) to send anauthorization request message to the acquirer processor (147) toinitiate a transaction. The transaction terminal (105) may or may notsend a separate request for the clearing and settling of thetransaction. The instructions stored in the memory (167) are alsoconfigured to cause the transaction terminal (105) to perform othertypes of functions discussed in this description.

In one embodiment, a transaction terminal (105) may have fewercomponents than those illustrated in FIG. 5. For example, in oneembodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is configured for“card-not-present” transactions; and the transaction terminal (105) doesnot have a reader (163).

In one embodiment, a transaction terminal (105) may have more componentsthan those illustrated in FIG. 5. For example, in one embodiment, thetransaction terminal (105) is an ATM machine, which includes componentsto dispense cash under certain conditions.

Account Identification Device

FIG. 6 illustrates an account identifying device according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 6, the account identification device (141) isconfigured to carry account information (142) that identifies theconsumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) includes amemory (167) coupled to the processor (151), which controls theoperations of a communication device (159), an input device (153), anaudio device (157) and a display device (155). The memory (167) maystore instructions for the processor (151) and/or data, such as theaccount information (142) associated with the consumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the account information (142) includes an identifieridentifying the issuer (and thus the issuer processor (145)) among aplurality of issuers, and an identifier identifying the consumer accountamong a plurality of consumer accounts controlled by the issuerprocessor (145). The account information (142) may include an expirationdate of the account identification device (141), the name of theconsumer holding the consumer account (146), and/or an identifieridentifying the account identification device (141) among a plurality ofaccount identification devices associated with the consumer account(146).

In one embodiment, the account information (142) may further include aloyalty program account number, accumulated rewards of the consumer inthe loyalty program, an address of the consumer, a balance of theconsumer account (146), transit information (e.g., a subway or trainpass), access information (e.g., access badges), and/or consumerinformation (e.g., name, date of birth), etc.

In one embodiment, the memory includes a nonvolatile memory, such asmagnetic strip, a memory chip, a flash memory, a Read Only Memory (ROM),etc. to store the account information (142).

In one embodiment, the information stored in the memory (167) of theaccount identification device (141) may also be in the form of datatracks that are traditionally associated with credits cards. Such tracksinclude Track 1 and Track 2. Track 1 (“International Air TransportAssociation”) stores more information than Track 2, and contains thecardholder's name as well as the account number and other discretionarydata. Track 1 is sometimes used by airlines when securing reservationswith a credit card. Track 2 (“American Banking Association”) iscurrently most commonly used and is read by ATMs and credit cardcheckers. The ABA (American Banking Association) designed thespecifications of Track 1 and banks abide by it. It contains thecardholder's account number, encrypted PIN, and other discretionarydata.

In one embodiment, the communication device (159) includes asemiconductor chip to implement a transceiver for communication with thereader (163) and an antenna to provide and/or receive wireless signals.

In one embodiment, the communication device (159) is configured tocommunicate with the reader (163). The communication device (159) mayinclude a transmitter to transmit the account information (142) viawireless transmissions, such as radio frequency signals, magneticcoupling, or infrared, Bluetooth or WiFi signals, etc.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is in theform of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. The inputdevice (153) can be used to provide input to the processor (151) tocontrol the operation of the account identification device (141); andthe audio device (157) and the display device (155) may present statusinformation and/or other information, such as advertisements or offers.The account identification device (141) may include further componentsthat are not shown in FIG. 6, such as a cellular communicationssubsystem.

In one embodiment, the communication device (159) may access the accountinformation (142) stored on the memory (167) without going through theprocessor (151).

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) has fewercomponents than those illustrated in FIG. 6. For example, an accountidentification device (141) does not have the input device (153), theaudio device (157) and the display device (155) in one embodiment; andin another embodiment, an account identification device (141) does nothave components (151-159).

For example, in one embodiment, an account identification device (141)is in the form of a debit card, a credit card, a smartcard, or aconsumer device that has optional features such as magnetic strips, orsmartcards.

An example of an account identification device (141) is a magnetic stripattached to a plastic substrate in the form of a card. The magneticstrip is used as the memory (167) of the account identification device(141) to provide the account information (142). Consumer information,such as account number, expiration date, and consumer name may beprinted or embossed on the card. A semiconductor chip implementing thememory (167) and the communication device (159) may also be embedded inthe plastic card to provide account information (142) in one embodiment.In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) has thesemiconductor chip but not the magnetic strip.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is integratedwith a security device, such as an access card, a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, a security card, a transponder, etc.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is a handheldand compact device. In one embodiment, the account identification device(141) has a size suitable to be placed in a wallet or pocket of theconsumer.

Some examples of an account identification device (141) include a creditcard, a debit card, a stored value device, a payment card, a gift card,a smartcard, a smart media card, a payroll card, a health care card, awrist band, a keychain device, a supermarket discount card, atransponder, and a machine readable medium containing accountinformation (142).

Point of Interaction

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) is to provide anadvertisement to the user (101), or to provide information derived fromthe transaction data (109) to the user (101).

In one embodiment, an advertisement is a marketing interaction which mayinclude an announcement and/or an offer of a benefit, such as adiscount, incentive, reward, coupon, gift, cash back, or opportunity(e.g., special ticket/admission). An advertisement may include an offerof a product or service, an announcement of a product or service, or apresentation of a brand of products or services, or a notice of events,facts, opinions, etc. The advertisements can be presented in text,graphics, audio, video, or animation, and as printed matter, webcontent, interactive media, etc. An advertisement may be presented inresponse to the presence of a financial transaction card, or in responseto a financial transaction card being used to make a financialtransaction, or in response to other user activities, such as browsing aweb page, submitting a search request, communicating online, entering awireless communication zone, etc. In one embodiment, the presentation ofadvertisements may be not a result of a user action.

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) can be one of variousendpoints of the transaction network, such as point of sale (POS)terminals, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic kiosks (orcomputer kiosks or interactive kiosks), self-assist checkout terminals,vending machines, gas pumps, websites of banks (e.g., issuer banks oracquirer banks of credit cards), bank statements (e.g., credit cardstatements), websites of the transaction handler (103), websites ofmerchants, checkout websites or web pages for online purchases, etc.

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) may be the same as thetransaction terminal (105), such as a point of sale (POS) terminal, anautomated teller machine (ATM), a mobile phone, a computer of the userfor an online transaction, etc. In one embodiment, the point ofinteraction (107) may be co-located with, or near, the transactionterminal (105) (e.g., a video monitor or display, a digital sign), orproduced by the transaction terminal (e.g., a receipt produced by thetransaction terminal (105)). In one embodiment, the point of interaction(107) may be separate from and not co-located with the transactionterminal (105), such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, apersonal computer of the user, a voice mail box of the user, an emailinbox of the user, a digital sign, etc.

For example, the advertisements can be presented on a portion of mediafor a transaction with the customer, which portion might otherwise beunused and thus referred to as a “white space” herein. A white space canbe on a printed matter (e.g., a receipt printed for the transaction, ora printed credit card statement), on a video display (e.g., a displaymonitor of a POS terminal for a retail transaction, an ATM for cashwithdrawal or money transfer, a personal computer of the customer foronline purchases), or on an audio channel (e.g., an interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system for a transaction over a telephonic device).

In one embodiment, the white space is part of a media channel availableto present a message from the transaction handler (103) in connectionwith the processing of a transaction of the user (101). In oneembodiment, the white space is in a media channel that is used to reportinformation about a transaction of the user (101), such as anauthorization status, a confirmation message, a verification message, auser interface to verify a password for the online use of the accountinformation (142), a monthly statement, an alert or a report, or a webpage provided by the portal (143) to access a loyalty program associatedwith the consumer account (146) or a registration program.

In other embodiments, the advertisements can also be presented via othermedia channels which may not involve a transaction processed by thetransaction handler (103). For example, the advertisements can bepresented on publications or announcements (e.g., newspapers, magazines,books, directories, radio broadcasts, television, digital signage, etc.,which may be in an electronic form, or in a printed or painted form).The advertisements may be presented on paper, on websites, onbillboards, on digital signs, or on audio portals.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) purchases the rights touse the media channels from the owner or operators of the media channelsand uses the media channels as advertisement spaces. For example, whitespaces at a point of interaction (e.g., 107) with customers fortransactions processed by the transaction handler (103) can be used todeliver advertisements relevant to the customers conducting thetransactions; and the advertisement can be selected based at least inpart on the intelligence information derived from the accumulatedtransaction data (109) and/or the context at the point of interaction(107) and/or the transaction terminal (105).

In general, a point of interaction (e.g., 107) may or may not be capableof receiving inputs from the customers, and may or may not co-locatedwith a transaction terminal (e.g., 105) that initiates the transactions.The white spaces for presenting the advertisement on the point ofinteraction (107) may be on a portion of a geographical display space(e.g., on a screen), or on a temporal space (e.g., in an audio stream).

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) may be used toprimarily to access services not provided by the transaction handler(103), such as services provided by a search engine, a social networkingwebsite, an online marketplace, a blog, a news site, a televisionprogram provider, a radio station, a satellite, a publisher, etc.

In one embodiment, a consumer device is used as the point of interaction(107), which may be a non-portable consumer device or a portablecomputing device. The consumer device is to provide media content to theuser (101) and may receive input from the user (101).

Examples of non-portable consumer devices include a computer terminal, atelevision set, a personal computer, a set-top box, or the like.Examples of portable consumer devices include a portable computer, acellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a securitycard, a wireless terminal, or the like. The consumer device may beimplemented as a data processing system as illustrated in FIG. 7, withmore or fewer components.

In one embodiment, the consumer device includes an accountidentification device (141). For example, a smart card used as anaccount identification device (141) is integrated with a mobile phone,or a personal digital assistant (PDA).

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) is integrated with atransaction terminal (105). For example, a self-service checkoutterminal includes a touch pad to interact with the user (101); and anATM machine includes a user interface subsystem to interact with theuser (101).

Hardware

In one embodiment, a computing apparatus is configured to include someof the components of systems illustrated in various figures, such as thetransaction handler (103), the profile generator (121), the mediacontroller (115), the portal (143), the profile selector (129), theadvertisement selector (133), the user tracker (113), the correlator,and their associated storage devices, such as the data warehouse (149).

In one embodiment, at least some of the components such as thetransaction handler (103), the transaction terminal (105), the point ofinteraction (107), the user tracker (113), the media controller (115),the correlator (117), the profile generator (121), the profile selector(129), the advertisement selector (133), the portal (143), the issuerprocessor (145), the acquirer processor (147), and the accountidentification device (141), can be implemented as a computer system,such as a data processing system (170) illustrated in FIG. 7. Some ofthe components may share hardware or be combined on a computer system.In one embodiment, a network of computers can be used to implement oneor more of the components.

Further, the data illustrated in the figures, such as transaction data(109), account data (111), transaction profiles (127), and advertisementdata (135), can be stored in storage devices of one or more computersaccessible to the corresponding components. For example, the transactiondata (109) can be stored in the data warehouse (149) that can beimplemented as a data processing system illustrated in FIG. 7, with moreor fewer components.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is a payment processingsystem, or a payment card processor, such as a card processor for creditcards, debit cards, etc.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data processing system according to one embodiment.While FIG. 7 illustrates various components of a computer system, it isnot intended to represent any particular architecture or manner ofinterconnecting the components. One embodiment may use other systemsthat have fewer or more components than those shown in FIG. 7.

In FIG. 7, the data processing system (170) includes an inter-connect(171) (e.g., bus and system core logic), which interconnects amicroprocessor(s) (173) and memory (167). The microprocessor (173) iscoupled to cache memory (179) in the example of FIG. 7.

In one embodiment, the inter-connect (171) interconnects themicroprocessor(s) (173) and the memory (167) together and alsointerconnects them to input/output (I/O) device(s) (175) via I/Ocontroller(s) (177). I/O devices (175) may include a display deviceand/or peripheral devices, such as mice, keyboards, modems, networkinterfaces, printers, scanners, video cameras and other devices known inthe art. In one embodiment, when the data processing system is a serversystem, some of the I/O devices (175), such as printers, scanners, mice,and/or keyboards, are optional.

In one embodiment, the inter-connect (171) includes one or more busesconnected to one another through various bridges, controllers and/oradapters. In one embodiment the I/O controllers (177) include a USB(Universal Serial Bus) adapter for controlling USB peripherals, and/oran IEEE-1394 bus adapter for controlling IEEE-1394 peripherals.

In one embodiment, the memory (167) includes one or more of: ROM (ReadOnly Memory), volatile RAM (Random Access Memory), and non-volatilememory, such as hard drive, flash memory, etc.

Volatile RAM is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) whichrequires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data inthe memory. Non-volatile memory is typically a magnetic hard drive, amagnetic optical drive, an optical drive (e.g., a DVD RAM), or othertype of memory system which maintains data even after power is removedfrom the system. The non-volatile memory may also be a random accessmemory.

The non-volatile memory can be a local device coupled directly to therest of the components in the data processing system. A non-volatilememory that is remote from the system, such as a network storage devicecoupled to the data processing system through a network interface suchas a modem or Ethernet interface, can also be used.

In this description, some functions and operations are described asbeing performed by or caused by software code to simplify description.However, such expressions are also used to specify that the functionsresult from execution of the code/instructions by a processor, such as amicroprocessor.

Alternatively, or in combination, the functions and operations asdescribed here can be implemented using special purpose circuitry, withor without software instructions, such as using Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC) or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).Embodiments can be implemented using hardwired circuitry withoutsoftware instructions, or in combination with software instructions.Thus, the techniques are limited neither to any specific combination ofhardware circuitry and software, nor to any particular source for theinstructions executed by the data processing system.

While one embodiment can be implemented in fully functioning computersand computer systems, various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a computing product in a variety of forms and are capableof being applied regardless of the particular type of machine orcomputer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

At least some aspects disclosed can be embodied, at least in part, insoftware. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computersystem or other data processing system in response to its processor,such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions containedin a memory, such as ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatile memory, cache or aremote storage device.

Routines executed to implement the embodiments may be implemented aspart of an operating system or a specific application, component,program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as“computer programs.” The computer programs typically include one or moreinstructions set at various times in various memory and storage devicesin a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or moreprocessors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operationsnecessary to execute elements involving the various aspects.

A machine readable medium can be used to store software and data whichwhen executed by a data processing system causes the system to performvarious methods. The executable software and data may be stored invarious places including for example ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatilememory and/or cache. Portions of this software and/or data may be storedin any one of these storage devices. Further, the data and instructionscan be obtained from centralized servers or peer to peer networks.Different portions of the data and instructions can be obtained fromdifferent centralized servers and/or peer to peer networks at differenttimes and in different communication sessions or in a same communicationsession. The data and instructions can be obtained in entirety prior tothe execution of the applications. Alternatively, portions of the dataand instructions can be obtained dynamically, just in time, when neededfor execution. Thus, it is not required that the data and instructionsbe on a machine readable medium in entirety at a particular instance oftime.

Examples of computer-readable media include but are not limited torecordable and non-recordable type media such as volatile andnon-volatile memory devices, read only memory (ROM), random accessmemory (RAM), flash memory devices, floppy and other removable disks,magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media (e.g., Compact DiskRead-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), etc.), amongothers. The computer-readable media may store the instructions.

The instructions may also be embodied in digital and analogcommunication links for electrical, optical, acoustical or other formsof propagated signals, such as carrier waves, infrared signals, digitalsignals, etc. However, propagated signals, such as carrier waves,infrared signals, digital signals, etc. are not tangible machinereadable medium and are not configured to store instructions.

In general, a machine readable medium includes any mechanism thatprovides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a formaccessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, network device, personaldigital assistant, manufacturing tool, any device with a set of one ormore processors, etc.).

In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combinationwith software instructions to implement the techniques. Thus, thetechniques are neither limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructionsexecuted by the data processing system.

Other Aspects

The description and drawings are illustrative and are not to beconstrued as limiting. The present disclosure is illustrative ofinventive features to enable a person skilled in the art to make and usethe techniques. Various features, as described herein, should be used incompliance with all current and future rules, laws and regulationsrelated to privacy, security, permission, consent, authorization, andothers. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thoroughunderstanding. However, in certain instances, well known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description.References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure are notnecessarily references to the same embodiment; and, such references meanat least one.

The use of headings herein is merely provided for ease of reference, andshall not be interpreted in any way to limit this disclosure or thefollowing claims.

Reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment,and are not necessarily all referring to separate or alternativeembodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, variousfeatures are described which may be exhibited by one embodiment and notby others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may berequirements for one embodiment but not other embodiments. Unlessexcluded by explicit description and/or apparent incompatibility, anycombination of various features described in this description is alsoincluded here. For example, the features described above in connectionwith “in one embodiment” or “in some embodiments” can be all optionallyincluded in one implementation, except where the dependency of certainfeatures on other features, as apparent from the description, may limitthe options of excluding selected features from the implementation, andincompatibility of certain features with other features, as apparentfrom the description, may limit the options of including selectedfeatures together in the implementation.

The disclosures of the above discussed patent documents are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope as set forth in the following claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile device, comprising: at least onemicroprocessor; and memory coupled with the at least one microprocessorand storing a mobile application configured to instruct the at least onemicroprocessor to at least: receive, in a user interface of the mobileapplication, an identifier of a merchant; transmit the identifier of themerchant to an internet portal of a processor configured in anelectronic payment processing network having a transaction handler,causing the portal to associate, in a data warehouse coupled to theportal, an account number with the identifier of the merchant;communicate, in a communication channel outside of the electronicpayment processing network, with the portal to identify the accountnumber; and transmit the account number to a transaction terminal of themerchant to cause the transaction terminal to initiate a transactioncommunication to the transaction handler in the electronic paymentprocessing network, wherein processing the transaction communication bythe processor causes the portal to: detect, for the identifier of themerchant, the transaction made using the account number; extract anidentifier of the transaction terminal from the transactioncommunication; and associate, in the data warehouse, based on anassociation of the account number and the identifier of the merchant inthe data warehouse and an association of the identifier of thetransaction terminal and the account number in the transactioncommunication, the identifier of the merchant and the identifier of thetransaction terminal.
 2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein themobile device is integrated within the transaction terminal.
 3. Themobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device further comprises adisplay device; and the mobile application is further configured to:present the account number on the display device; and determine aposition of the mobile device while the account number is presented onthe display device.
 4. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the accountnumber is displayed at least in a bar code format on the display device.5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device furthercomprises a near field communication device; and the mobile applicationis further configured to: communicate the account number to thetransaction terminal using the near field communication device.
 6. Themobile device of claim 5, wherein the mobile application is furtherconfigured to determine a position of the mobile device when the nearfield communication device communicates the account number to thetransaction terminal.
 7. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein themobile device further comprises: a global positioning system (GPS)receiver; and a second communication device; wherein the mobileapplication is further configured to instruct the GPS receiver todetermine the position of the mobile device when the near fieldcommunication device communicates the account number to the transactionterminal, and instruct the second communication device to communicatethe position of the mobile device to the portal in association with theidentifier of the merchant.
 8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein themobile application is further configured to authenticate the merchantrepresented by the identifier of the merchant.
 9. The mobile device ofclaim 1, wherein the account number is a one-time account number validfor one time use.
 10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the accountnumber is valid only within a predetermined period of time after theaccount number is identified in response to a communication between themobile device and the portal.
 11. The mobile device of claim 10, whereinthe account number is received from the portal in the communication. 12.The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processing of the transactioncommunication by the processor causes the portal to remove associationbetween the one-time account number and the identifier of the merchant.13. A method implemented in a mobile device having at least onemicroprocessor; and memory coupled with the at least one microprocessorand storing a mobile application configured to instruct the at least onemicroprocessor to perform the method, the method comprising: receiving,in a user interface of the mobile application, an identifier of amerchant; transmitting the identifier of the merchant to an internetportal of a processor configured in an electronic payment processingnetwork having a transaction handler, causing the portal to associate,in a data warehouse coupled to the portal, an account number with theidentifier of the merchant; communicating, in a communication channeloutside of the electronic payment processing network, with the portal toidentify the account number; and transmitting the account number to atransaction terminal of the merchant to cause the transaction terminalto initiate a transaction communication to the transaction handler inthe electronic payment processing network, wherein processing thetransaction communication by the processor causes the portal to: detect,for the identifier of the merchant, the transaction made using theaccount number; extract an identifier of the transaction terminal fromthe transaction communication; and associate, in the data warehouse,based on an association of the account number and the identifier of themerchant in the data warehouse and an association of the identifier ofthe transaction terminal and the account number in the transactioncommunication, the identifier of the merchant and the identifier of thetransaction terminal.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the accountnumber is a one-time account number valid for one time use and validonly within a predetermined period of time after the account number isidentified in response to a communication between the mobile device andthe portal.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the processing of thetransaction communication by the processor causes the portal to removeassociation between the one-time account number and the identifier ofthe merchant.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the mobile device hasa display device; and the method further comprises: presenting theaccount number on the display device at least in a bar code format onthe display device; and determining a position of the mobile devicewhile the account number is presented on the display device.
 17. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the mobile device has a near fieldcommunication device, and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver;and the method further comprises: communicating the account number tothe transaction terminal using the near field communication device;determining a position of the mobile device using the GPS receiverduring a communication session of the near field communication devicecommunicating the account number to the transaction terminal; andcommunicating the position of the mobile device to the portal inassociation with the identifier of the merchant.
 18. The method of claim13, further comprising: authenticating the merchant represented by theidentifier of the merchant before the communicating with the portal toidentify an account number.
 19. A non-transitory computer medium storinga mobile application which when executed in a mobile device having atleast one microprocessor and memory coupled with the at least onemicroprocessor instructs the at least one microprocessor to perform amethod, the method comprising: receiving, in a user interface of themobile application, an identifier of a merchant; transmitting theidentifier of the merchant to an internet portal of a processorconfigured in an electronic payment processing network having atransaction handler, causing the portal to associate, in a datawarehouse coupled to the portal, an account number with the identifierof the merchant; communicating, in a communication channel outside ofthe electronic payment processing network, with the portal to identifythe account number; and transmitting the account number to a transactionterminal of the merchant to cause the transaction terminal to initiate atransaction communication to the transaction handler in the electronicpayment processing network, wherein processing the transactioncommunication by the processor causes the portal to: detect, for theidentifier of the merchant, the transaction made using the accountnumber; extract an identifier of the transaction terminal from thetransaction communication; and associate, in the data warehouse, basedon an association of the account number and the identifier of themerchant in the data warehouse and an association of the identifier ofthe transaction terminal and the account number in the transactioncommunication, the identifier of the merchant and the identifier of thetransaction terminal.